On May 30, IDFI published its study of the procurement of airplane tickets by the Teacher Professional Development Center for its program Teach and Learn with Georgia. The study found that in 2015 the Center had spent GEL 62,000 to purchase 11 one-way tickets that actually cost GEL 39,000. In addition, GEL 571,714 that was spent on airplane tickets through 9 tenders in 2013-2015 was also overpriced.

The study drew considerable attention from the media. Rustavi 2 TV _ Businness Kurieri and the Channel 1 of the Georgian Public Broadcaster prepared segments on the topic, both featuring an interview with Saba Buadze, good governance program coordinator at IDFI. In his interview with Rustavi 2 Buadze stated that, - “it is hard to say whether this is a corruption case or some other legal offense. We recommend the State Procurement Agency look into this issue.”

In an interview with Channel 1 Buadze said that, - “the tickets cost much less than what was paid by the state. On the one hand, this could have been caused by a procedural problem during procurement; on the other hand, the problem could be the dishonesty of the supplier company.”

Radio Pirveli and Radio Maestro also talked about IDFI’s study.

As for print media, newspaper Messenger published an extensive article on the topic.

The story was also reported by www.ick.ge and www.ipress.ge.