The National Agency for Public Procurement reports, that Georgian Ministry of Justice paid GEL 25,074,951 to the international law firm White & Case, which presented Georgian side at the arbitration dispute. According to documents, the case was led by lawyer Charles Nairac on behalf of the company, whose fee for participating in the disputes was USD 1,055 per hour.
The Georgian government has lost an international arbitration dispute with the Turkish company ENKA Insaat, which was implementing the Namakhvani HPP project. ENKA Insaat itself has released information about this. According to the company, the compensation imposed on Georgia totals to USD 383.2 million, which exceeds GEL 1 billion at the current exchange rate.
The arbitration dispute followed ENKA's statement made on September 20, 2021. ENKA Renewables LLC issued a special statement announcing that they had terminated the contract for the Namakhvani Cascade HPP Project in Georgia due to the state's breach of the investment agreement and the creation of force majeure.
Irakli Kobakhidze said on 2 December 2024 that the arbitration dispute was continuing, although he also said that Georgia may have to pay multi-million-dollar compensation. The Ministry of Justice has not yet commented on the case.
ENKA Renewables LLC was building the 433-megawatt Namakhvani hydroelectric power plant cascade in Tskaltubo municipality, with the project scheduled to be commissioned in 2025-2026.
The company was preparing to begin construction work on the USD 800 million Namakhvani hydroelectric power plant during the aforementioned period and had already invested up to USD 100 million in preliminary work.
