300 Thousand From the State Budget Bound for Paving a Road from One Hotel of the Deputy to Another

On April 24, Ambrolauri Council enrolled the reconstruction of the road connecting the hotel complex with the “Enukidzeebi” and “Oshkherelebi” districts in the list of priority projects to be completed in 2023.

The project is divided into two parts: 290 thousand is allocated for the reconstruction of the first section, which links Hotel Karse to the recently built cottages about 250 meters away, continues between the vineyards, and merges with the main road of the district. The second section (Oshkherlebi district), around which people live and have been asking for its asphalting for years, will only be paved with stones for 36 thousand GEL.

Online media outlet Mountain Stories requested the project paperwork from the Municipal Hall on May 3. By law, the hall must have handed over the documents immediately, as they were readily available and needed no time for search and gathering, but as of now, they have not been provided. 

Mobilization of officials in Enukidze’s defense

We had just arrived near Karse in the village of Sadmeli minutes ago to assess the situation on site when Racha-Lechkhum-Qvemo Svaneti Deputy Governor Kristine Kobakhidze pulled up to the hotel in an official state car. Kobakhidze was chaired as a deputy governor a year ago. Before, she served as a Head of Deputy Enukidze’s bureau and is his confidante in the Racha region. As soon as we started recording an interview with the member of the opposition from the council, Amiran Lomtadze, Municipal Mayor Zviad Mkheidze, Council Chairman Aslan Saganelidze, Deputy Mayor Mamuka Khimshiashvili, a council member from Georgian Dream and Chairman of the Commission Elizbar Kobakhidze, and a few more officials arrived at the scene. We were conducting an interview in the street near Enukidze’s cottages, outside of the private property.

- “What are you doing here, who allowed you?,“ asks us Elizbar Kobakhidze.

- “Do we need a visa to work in a public space in Racha?“

“Why are you looking for points of potential controversy? There is nothing to uncover here,“ told us Ambrolauri Mayor, Zviad (David) Mkheidze.

- Why should 300 thousand be spent from the state budget for rebuilding a road from Gocha Enukidze’s, who’s a millionaire deputy from Georgian Dream, one hotel to the other?

- That’s no one’s business. Whatever he has he earned from honest hard work, and no one counts other people’s property and millions.

- We do Mr. Zviad, we do.

- You are asking very bad questions and with obvious intentions.

- We are investigating a possible corruption.

- Where do you see corruption? What if we held you responsible for your accusations? You are the corrupt ones, I’m telling you straight.

- How am I corrupt?

- Because you are looking for a bad…thing, what’s it called. Acting on someone’s orders. What does this have to do with corruption, I don’t understand.

Corruption is “the exploitation of entrusted official position or the authority it entails by a public servant for illegally obtaining wealth or other benefits, as well as, providing or facilitating the provision or the legalization of those assets.”

Mayor’s 3 arguments

• From here (cottages) to the hotel (Kasre) is 200 meters, and a further kilometer from here (to the main road);
• Does the road end here? It keeps going up until the base of that mountain. People live here. We have the signatures of 37 families. There is no alternative shorter route to the settlement. So, just because someone lives here, should we skip this section and fly over? This road shortens the path from those regions to the central road. Some bring their children to kindergarten, and not everyone has cars to take the long route.
• You’re fixating on Gocha’s property, but does no one else own land here? Everyone wants to build something.

Every “argument” of Ambrolauri municipal mayor he is trying to sell to justify the paving of Enukidze’s road, is false.

In reality, the distance from Enukidze’s hotel Kasre to his newly-built cottages is 265 meters. From the cottages to the point where the road meets the district’s central road is 195 meters.

We quantified how much the “Enukidze road” will shorten the distance for Sadmeli’s upper district (Oshkherlebi) residents to the Alpana-Ambrolauri main road. The existing road which traverses the village and is paved with concrete is 1160 meters. “Enukidze road” is 1324, so 164 more.

Although the requested public information from the Ambrolauri municipality mayor’s office was never provided, we were able to uncover that the 37 signatures that the municipality mayor is banking on to justify the rebuilding of the “Enukidze road” mainly belong to the residents of Oshkherlebi district whose main request is the restoration of the existing district road. The road from Oshkherlebi district connects to the main village road, not to “Enukidze road”.

According to the data from the real estate register, the plots with the largest area along this section of the road (Enukidze Road), 21,418 square meters in total, are the property of Gocha Enukidze’s companies.

According to the Law of Georgia on roads, the list of roads of local importance is approved by the municipal bodies. As a rule, the list is revised once in 3 years. The Legislative Herald of Georgia published Resolution No. 58 of the Ambrolauri Municipality Council from December 2, 2014, which was last amended on December 26, 2016. The so-called “road connecting the hotel complex with Enukidzeebi and Oshkherlebi districts” is nowhere to be found among the roads of local importance of village Sadmeli.

“There was no road connecting Sachkhere and Oni at that time, but now there is, isn't it?” this is how the Chairman of Ambrolauri Municipality Council Aslan Saganelidze replied to the question from Mountain Stories - How did the reconstruction of the road that connects one of Enukidze's hotels to the other end up on the list of priority projects for 2023 when it doesn’t even have an official status of a road of local importance. “We will assign the status later, what's the problem,” said the chairman of the Council.

This is not the first case of refurbishing roads leading up to Enukidze’s business facilities from the state budget. When the deputy opened the Karse Hotel in the village of Sadmeli, a 5-minute drive from the Ambrolauri airport, the municipality financed the construction of a second (bypass) car road leading to the complex.

Gocha Enukidze has been a member of the Parliament of Georgia since 2008. For his first run, he became the majority MP of Ambrolauri with the United National Movement. In 2012, he ran from the same party. After oligarch Bidzina Ivanishvili's party came to power, Enukidze switched gears to join Georgian Dream. In 2016, he was nominated by Georgian Dream as a majority candidate for Ambrolauri, Oni, Tsageri, Lentekhi, and Mestia. MP is linked with 42 companies in different ways. His companies span the oil, agriculture, energy, commercial real estate, and tourism industries. He owns direct shares in 8 enterprises. He is a shareholder of Liberty Bank, a 100% shareholder of IberCompany LLC, a 25% owner of Arch Tower LLC, and since 2021 he is a shareholder of JSC Tesla Inc. (California, USA), etc.

In March 2015, Iber Company LLC received 3,526 square meters of non-agricultural land in the vicinity of Akademkalaki in Tbilisi for 800,000 GEL through direct privatization. In order to fulfill the privatization condition, the company had to invest 4,000,000 GEL by September 25, 2018, which, according to the information of the National State Property Agency, was not fulfilled.

In 2018, Gocha Enukidze founded Naberauli Wines LLC and in the same year received a grant of 600,000 GEL from the state, with which he built a wine factory in the village of Akaleli.

Enukidze's company IberCompany Petroleum imported oil from Russia, which was bought through simplified purchase by the state agencies including in his own constituency.

As of December 31, 2021, the assets of just one company - IberCompany LLC are estimated at 44 million GEL. The annual total profit of the enterprise by 2021 was 8 million GEL.

With the sum that the local government has to spend for the reconstruction of the road connecting Enukidze hotels, it would be possible to solve the problem of public transportation in the entire municipality. Racha ranks first among the regions of Georgia in terms of migration rate. One of the reasons for the mass flight of residents is the isolation caused by the lack of transport.