Relative of head of Georgian ruling party has received more than $5 mln from budget since 2014

A relative of Bidzina Ivanishvili, chairman of the ruling Georgian Dream party and the unofficial head of the country received more than 16 million lari from the state budget since 2014 (about 5.25 million dollars at the current rate) through tenders and government purchases.

Murman Togonidze is the husband of the sister-in-law of Bidzina Ivanishvili’s sister. He is registered as an individual entrepreneur, and also owns a 100% stake in Msheninvest LLC.

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Transparency International Georgia (TI) claims entrepreneur Murman Togonidze and Msheninvest LLC have won 90 public procurement tenders since 2014.  

In 42 cases Togonidze had no competitors. In another 20 cases, the tender commission disqualified other companies with lower prices and signed a contract with Murman Togonidze.  

In nine cases, Togonidze won tenders, indicating a low price, but subsequently raising it.

As a result, Murman Togonidze concluded public procurement contracts to the amount of about 15 million GEL, and the company belonging to him signed contracts for about 1 million GEL.  

Togonidze’s main customer is Sachkhere Municipality (Bidzina Ivanishvili’s hometown).

In addition, the Togonidze company executed direct procurement contracts with the municipalities of Sachkhere and Chiatura, bypassing the tender, in the amount of 388 thousand lari (about 100 thousand dollars).

 Transparency International Georgia calls on the Anti-Corruption Agency of the State Security Service and the Prosecutor General of Georgia to investigate all these transactions and find out whether there are signs of corruption.