Tbilisi City Hall denies media report on kindergarten food tender

Tbilisi, Georgia: Tbilisi City Hall has started to refute a media report that claimed the tender for food provision for public kindergarten pupils was announced late and failed, forcing the agency to buy food in a simplified manner.

The statement, published on the official website of Tbilisi City Hall, said that the information was “a total lie” and aimed to “mislead the society, especially the parents”.

According to the statement, Georgia’s law on “state procurement” of kindergartens has been published for the first time since 2024, and each kindergarten has been registered as a purchasing organization. A joint tender for the garden food supply was announced on November 30, 2023, after conducting market research in the previous period.

The statement also said that representatives of competing companies appealed both tenders due to specific procedure issues and that the tender procedures would continue as usual after the decision. In the meantime, the agency had to purchase food supplies urgently from January 15 to February 29, 2024, by signing contracts with the companies with the lowest bidder.

The statement emphasized that no tender had failed and that the agency acted according to the law and the children’s best interests. It also said that providing food to the educators and the 60,000 children attending the 189 public kindergartens in Tbilisi, especially during the pandemic, was an essential issue for the municipality.

The statement concluded by urging the media representatives to check the issues related to the municipality, mainly concerning children, with the press office of Tbilisi City Hall.

Social media users are showing their concern regarding this on Facebook. One person, Tia Kaladadze, writes, “When you are always in the mode of excuses. Tell me this: I have to travel from Beijing Street to Digomi Massif on road number 534, which is stuck, and if it appears once an hour, maybe you can think of something and make an extra appointment or a bus or another route, we suffered.”