Filenews 15 January 2026
Critical infrastructures of the Republic remained perforated, in terms of security, for seven years (2018-2025) and still remain today, because two tenders for the acquisition of protection systems against the threat from Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs)-drones were not implemented. And that's because the company chosen couldn't even detect the drones.
The tenders concerned the detection and neutralization of drones.
The issue, which was highlighted through a Report of the Auditor General, is being discussed today before the Parliamentary Audit Committee, where explanations will be sought for the inexplicable gaps and procedures followed by the contracting authority, which in this case is the Police.
Among other things, the Report shows that countries such as the USA and Israel and Canada that have relevant advanced technology were excluded from the competition. Besides, the country in which the same systems that (theoretically) would operate in Cyprus were installed was not even declared. The Contracting Authority merely accepted an assurance from the tenderer that the country was European.
When tests were carried out to determine the reliability of the system, it was found that it did not detect the drones, so the contract was terminated "with the implementation of the project currently having an unspecified time horizon", as pointed out in the Report of the Audit Office.
The implementation of the contract was not monitored and the following report of the Auditor General is characteristic:
"The most critical finding concerns the absence of systematic monitoring: For almost three years, the Contracting Authority did not have a clear picture of the progress of the project, nor any intermediate confirmations of the functionality of the systems. This practice turned out to be completely wrong, as only when after the failure of the repeat tests, the contract was terminated in April 2025 and the guarantees were confiscated."
It is noted that even if the contract was implemented, it would still create a problem because the tender did not provide for the summary of support and maintenance services of the systems.
The first tender was announced in 2018 and ended in 2019, while the second was announced on June 10, 2021, with a total cost estimate of €2,171,428 + VAT and the award criterion being the lowest price.
Among other things, the following are recorded in the Report:
-After more than seven years and two failed tenders, the critical infrastructure of the Republic still does not have protection systems against the threat of NPEs, with the implementation of the project currently having an unspecified time horizon.
-Critical infrastructure protection systems concern two essentially independent systems, which work together. The first concerns the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) detection system and the second concerns the jamming of UAVs.
-To meet the need for critical infrastructure protection systems, two attempts were made, but without any success. Therefore, after seven years (2018-2025) and two failed tenders, the project has not been implemented with all the consequent consequences, taking into account that it concerned critical infrastructure.
-The proposal of the successful bidder did not include the support and maintenance services of the systems and therefore, the uninterrupted support and maintenance of the systems by the contractor at competitive prices, after the end of the period of good operation of the systems, was not ensured.
-The participation criterion for successful completion in the previous five years of at least one contract at a civil or military airport in an EU or UK Member State worth more than €500,000 excluded projects implemented in countries such as the USA, Israel and Canada, which were clearly much more technologically developed and more sensitive to this issue both militarily and politically than European countries with little know-how in the field of specific issue.
-The AA had not conducted the necessary research during the evaluation stage of the tenders to determine whether the specific company had the capabilities to supply and support its products in the long term.
A resounding failure during the test
In the chapter entitled "Procedure for the receipt of the systems of contract D.O 29/2021 by the Acceptance Committee", it is recorded that:
-On November 26, 2024, the Cyprus Police sent us the detailed schedule for carrying out the acceptance tests of the systems that the Contractor had installed in the various critical infrastructures of the Republic of Cyprus in the context of the implementation of the contract in question, which would be carried out by the Acceptance Committee from December 2 to 6, 2024.
… Two of our officers participated as observers of the process in receipt tests that were carried out on one of the five days of the program. Taking into account that during the presence of our officers in one of the tests it was found that the Contractor's systems did not meet the requirements of the contract, we asked the Police and they sent us the relevant certificate of rejection of the supplies which was issued by the Acceptance Committee. The rejection of the systems took into account the results/observations of the tests/checks specified in the contract on the Contractor's installed systems, recording in a table the deviations from the specified technical specifications, including that the installed systems had a very low detection rate of MBTs and did not detect all UAVs during the testing procedures.
-On April 3, 2025, the Police sent us the detailed schedule for conducting the repeat tests of the systems that would be carried out by the Acceptance Committee from April 7 to 11, 2025. Two officers of our Service participated as observers in acceptance tests carried out on two of the five days of the program, where again the inability of the systems to meet the requirements of the contract was revealed.
Finally, on April 16, 2025, the Civil Code informed the Contractor by letter of the final rejection of all systems/deliverables by the Acceptance Committee, due to the company's inability to supply/replace/repair the rejected products within the deadline given to it, declaring it forfeited and subject to the penalties provided for by the contract. In the above letter, the Police attached a table prepared by the Acceptance Committee with the deviations of the installed systems from the specified technical specifications of the contract.
-In September 2025, the CC informed us of the following:
a. It has applied the terms of the contract for the seizure of the guarantees (advance payment guarantee for the amount of €497,056 and good performance guarantee for the amount of €82,842) in case of termination due to the failure of the contractor company to fulfil its contractual obligations.
b. A competent Committee was appointed to further handle the issue of installing critical infrastructure protection systems against the threat of unmanned aerial vehicles. -With the final rejection of the systems, the complaint submitted to the Police and our Service by another bidder before the award of the contract was largely confirmed, that the Contractor did not meet the participation criteria and the technical specifications set out in the tender documents. From the investigation of the complaint, we found that there was not an adequate investigation/control by the Police of the documentation of the Contractor's capabilities to execute the contract during the tender evaluation stage, on the basis of the provisions of the tender documents. As a result of the above, about four years after the announcement of the tender, the systems in question were not available and the Republic of Cyprus remained exposed to the risks from which it would have been protected.
