Chinese companies involved in the construction of Georgia's vital east-west highway have been linked to corruption scandals and blacklisted in various contexts, according to Lelo for Georgia, a political party.
Tamaz Datunashvili, one of Lelo's leaders, said the World Bank in 2009 banned the China State Construction Engineering Corporation Limited (CSCEC) from participating in World Bank-funded projects for six years. The case concerned the Philippine National Roads Improvement and Management Programme, in which Lelo said the company was involved in a corruption scandal.
Mr Datunashvili also said that the US government had accused CSCEC of cyber espionage and banned US-registered companies from becoming CSCEC shareholders in 2020.
Another contractor, Hunan Road, and Bridge Construction Group, has been linked to shoddy construction scandals in China and Uganda. A bridge collapse in Tuojiang, China, killed 64 people. Several company officials were arrested and prosecuted for corruption and negligence.
In 2009, the World Bank also sanctioned the China Road and Bridge Corporation, the third company involved in the construction of Georgia's main highway, for fraudulent practices related to an ongoing project in the Philippines.
The company has also faced scandals in Kenya, Croatia, and Kyrgyzstan, Mr Datunashvili said.
Georgia's prime minister, Irakli Garibashvili, has himself been accused of shady links to controversial Chinese companies. After leaving the premiership in 2015, Mr Garibashvili spent a year and a half as an employee of CEFC - China Energy, a Chinese conglomerate accused of corruption in many countries, including the Czech Republic and Chad.
When Garibashvili returned to office in 2021, Civic Idea, a Georgian think-tank, issued a statement highlighting concerns about his links to the Chinese company, which it said were "particularly pronounced in relation to corruption, various schemes, bribery of high-ranking officials and other criminal activities, while some of the company's former officials are themselves still under investigation".
In 2020, the company, which according to Caxin, a Beijing-based business news outlet, "used a complex network of affiliated companies to facilitate fake deals, inflate trade figures and obtain bank loans to fuel its aggressive expansion", was declared bankrupt.
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