chamber_of_control

(Interpressnews.)

TBILISI, DFWatch–The State Audit Office Tuesday published a report which indicates that there may have been violations in the Prison Ministry’s public procurements.

The report covers the years 2013-2014 and shows that in 14 bidding rounds announced by the ministry, there was only one winning company: GMM.

During a tender in 2013, there were four participating companies, and one of them, Tela 2012, offered lower prices than GMM, but didn’t have certain documents in order and was asked for clarification. Tela 2012 didn’t produce the required documents in time and was disqualified, leaving GMM as the winner again with a proposal that cost 211.100 laris more.

Another part of the report deals with awards that were given in the same period. It claims that there is no justification for paying awards to employees.

In 2013, the largest awards given was in December – 20,000 laris. In some cases, awards were given to the same person twice, and even four times. The report says it is often unexplained why a person is being given extra payment in addition to the salary.

In July 2014, individual awards amounted to around ten thousand laris.

The Prison Ministry has not yet commented.