“Hospitals Catering Systems” LLC has won the tender to provide catering services to the participants of the “public security and law and order activities” of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The company will receive 240,000 lari from the state budget in 2025 for this purpose, with an additional 60,00 lari from the state budget in 2026.

The contract will be valid through 31 March 2026. According to the agreement, the winning company must provide food services within 12 hours after a request has been issued. This entails preparing a minimum of 5000 sets, which look as follows:

- 1 sandwich with ham and cheese

-  Chocolate bar product

- Refreshing, carbonated, non-alcoholic drink

Only “Hospitals Catering Systems” LLC submitted a bid in the electronic tender, offering to prepare each lunch set for 19 lari and 75 tetri for the MIA. At this stage, the agreement is being worked on. MIA announced the procurement on November 8, while bid submission began on December 7. 

According to public sources, this will be the first case of the company supplying catering services to enforcement agencies. In the past, the company mainly had experience in providing these services to medical institutions.

Since 2020, the company has won tenders related to catering services for a total of 1,335,400 lari, as well as 26,000 lari through simplified procurement. The company won its largest tenders, for 550,00 and 430,000 lari, in 2021. Both of them concerned the catering services of the Nikoloz Kipshidze Central University Clinic LLC.

The company’s director Valerian Putkaradze donated 40,000 lari to the “Georgian Dream” in August 2024. 

The shares of “Hospitals Catering Systems” LLC are distributed as follows:

- Natia Tavadze, - 50% 

- Zaza Sinauridze - 20% 

- Shalva Nozadze, - 30% 

Natia Tavadze (née Putkaradze) is the spouse of the founder of the insurance company “Ardi”, Armaz Tavadze. The latter is a shareholder in over 20 companies.

Armaz Tavadze and Valerian Putkaradze, alongside alleged family ties, are also business partners. Specifically, they own shares in the Rustavi Metal Constructions Factory LLC (50%-20%). The director of the company Evgeny Jikhvadze and the owner of the remaining 30% of the shares Sulkhan Khvedelidze are also donors of the “Georgian Dream”. They have donated a sum of 170,000 lari to the party in 2020-2024. Valerian Putkaradze and Armaz Tavadze are members of the Supervisory Board of the “Autograph” insurance company.

Tavadze is also a business partner of a millionaire MP of the parliament of the X convocation and signatory of the so-called Russian Law - Avtandil Enukidze. In particular, Enukidze and Tavadze own 33.3% of the “Caucasus Motors Automobile Holding” company.

Armaz Tavadze is additionally the founder and owner of the media holding company “Commersant”.

The 20% shareholder of “Hospitals Catering Systems” LLC Zaza Sinauridze, meanwhile, is an obstetrician-gynecologist and head of the Perinatal Center at “Pineo”. He owns 40% of “Pineo Luxury” LLC. Sinauridze also holds the position of head of the Georgian Perinatal Association (GPA) and is a member of the board of the Georgian Obstetricians and Gynecologists Association (GOGA). Sinauridze is one of the founders and former director of "Pineo Medical Ecosystem". For years, Armaz Tavadze also owned a share in "Pineo".

The Ministry of Internal Affairs announced the procurement of catering services for special forces (employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs participating in public security and law and order activities) on November 28. This was also the day when the large-scale protests began in Tbilisi and other large cities. According to the offer at the time, the contract with the winning company would have been valid until the end of 2024. However, because of a lack of bidders, the procurement failed. Similar to the procurement announced for 2025-26, the MIA requested the production of at least 5,000 lunches at a time, and the procurement cost was 300,000 GEL.

As mentioned above, the tender agreement announced by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the provision of food for the special forces will be valid until 31 March 2026. However, expenses incurred by the Ministry of Internal Affairs for similar purposes in the past show that the services of the company selected through the tender continue until the amount stipulated in the contract is exhausted, which depends on the duration of the current protests. After the amount is exhausted, the food for the special forces deployed to the rally is provided through direct procurement, bypassing the tender procedure.

For example, although the contract worth 200 thousand GEL signed between the Ministry and the company “Star Food” on 16 July 2024 was valid until 31 January 2025, according to the acceptance and delivery acts published on the state procurement portal, the company provided the last service to the MIA (2,000 lunch sets) within the framework of this tender on 24 November 2024. It should be noted that “Star Food” LLC was established on 11 June 2024, a week after the announcement of this tender (the simplified procurement was announced by the Ministry on June 4, with the bid submissions ending on June 17).

From November 24 to December 22, the MIA applied to the State Procurement Agency 13 times with a request for a simplified procurement permit for employee meals. In 12 of these cases, the Ministry received approval—with a total value of 1,162,050 lari. A procurement worth 62,100 lari is under review. Unfortunately, after 2019, simplified procurement contracts implemented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs without a tender are no longer uploaded to the state procurement website, making it impossible to obtain information about suppliers.

The analysis presented above shows that, in the context of the ongoing protests, only one company, whose management is connected to the government, is participating in the open tender for the supply of catering services to MIA employees. In addition, in most cases, the procurement of catering services for special forces and other employees during protests is carried out through direct procurement, the contracts for which are hidden.

The moral and public pressure on companies as a result of the brutality shown by MIA employees during the dispersal of protests can be considered the main reason for the low interest in participating in open tenders for catering services for MIA employees. The threat of international sanctions, which may be due to the company's cooperation with structural units of the Ministry,whose actions have already led to the financial sanctions of their leaders may be an additional factor.