Filenews 20 February 2024 - by Chrysanthos Manoli
With a copy of a letter dated 15/11/2019 from the then Accountant General Rea Georgiou to the then President of DEFA, Simeon Kassianidis, AKEL MP Irene Charalambidou responds to the position expressed before the Audit Committee by former Energy Minister George Lakkotrypis, that the award of the Chinese CPP's offer was made legally, with the agreement of all officials, including then-Attorney General Costas Clerides.
In her post on social media, Ms. Charalambidou presents the letter of Rea Georgiou (the Treasury is the highest competent authority for public procurement), which is one of the documents submitted to the Audit Committee in the context of the discussion of the Auditor General's report on the terminal project.
Reference to the letter is also made in the report of Odysseas Michaelides, on page 30. An excerpt of the text, as quoted in the Auditor General's report, was published by Phileleftheros in last Friday's edition: "The former (Phil. the then) Accountant General of the Republic, by letter dated . 15.11.2019, he had reported to ETYFA that during the evaluation process practices had been followed that are in no way consistent with the regulatory framework governing public procurement and far from best practices. He told them that, in essence, the Evaluation Report is full of issues that require explanation and documentation in order to be able to stand up to the torment of critical reading. By way of example, the former Accountant General stated that the submitted participation guarantees did not comply with the terms of the tender documents (...). Finally, he pointed out to ETYFA that he had not shown the diligence that was appropriate for a project of such scope, perhaps the largest in the Republic, so that the results, with full transparency, would be indisputable."
The photocopy of Rea Georgiou's letter fully confirms the reference to Odysseas Michaelides' catapult report. And it provides additional revelations: According to the then Accountant General, "the 'evaluation' report (the quotation marks in the word evaluation are by Rea Georgiou!) is full of topics that require explanation and documentation in order to be able to stand up to the torment of critical reading. For example, the description of the participation guarantees submitted, given on pages 6 and 7, does not comply with the terms of the tender documents. The wording contained in the tender guarantee form contained in the tender documents has been arbitrarily modified by the two tenderers and it is suggested that it be accepted as substantially similar. It is worth noting," says the then Accountant General, the official directly responsible for public offerings, "that similar matters have been decided in the courts and there is res judicata."
Ms Georgiou also writes in her letter to the then president of DEFA that other letters (apparently with comments on the tender and the evaluation carried out) were preceded by both herself and the Auditor General.
The letters and warnings were ignored by DEFA and the Anastasiades government, with the former president taking the political decision, at a meeting at the Presidential Palace, to proceed with the signing of the contract with CPP, regardless of the irregularities and illegalities identified by the Accountant General and the Auditor General. His main argument was not to waste any more time. The signatures entered the contract and since then 4 years and some months have passed, and the works in Vasilikos are at 40% of the total provided for in the agreement and the arrival of natural gas through this project is rather unlikely before and before 2026.
Irene Charalambidou writes in her post that the "huge scandal with the LNG project" should already be criminally investigated.
