Criminal complaint filed by SYRIZA against the Secretary General of Anti-Crime Policy, Sofia Nikolaou

In May 2021, the official opposition party filed a criminal complaint against the Secretary General of Anti-Crime Policy, Sofia Nikolaou. It claimed that 28 supply and service contracts to combat the spread of coronavirus in penitentiaries were signed at prices that far exceeded not only the supply prices that other public bodies were paying, but even the respective retail prices on the open market, resulting in a loss to the public of more than 2.1 million euros.

Serious allegations – which led to the financial prosecutor’s own investigation – were made in 2021 about the direct award of multimillion-euro contracts by the Secretary General of Anti-Crime Policy, Sofia Nikolaou, which aimed to address and prevent the spread of the spread of coronavirus in the country’s prisons.

According to contracts posted on Greece’s transparency portal, in the period from March 26 to 30 alone, the General Secretariat for Anti-Crime Policy proceeded with seven direct contracts awarded for the supply of antiseptics, gloves, masks, personal hygiene items and other products to combat the spread of coronavirus in prisons. The total cost of the contracts exceeded 1 million euros. From March 2020 to March 2021, it is estimated that direct contracts awarded by Ms. Nikolaou amounted to 4 million euros.

Last May, SYRIZA, as the official opposition party, filed a criminal complaint against the Secretary General of Anti-Crime Policy. According to its content, which will be examined in the context of the judicial investigation, in the period from March 30, 2020 to March 30, 2021, she signed 28 supply and service contracts at prices that far exceeded not only the supply prices that other public bodies were paying, but even the respective retail prices on the open market, resulting in a loss to the public purse of more than 2.1 million euros.

The complaint claims that, “in order to deliberately avoid the observance of the provisions of European and national law which apply strictly to any contract over 139,000 euros and provide for competitive procedures even in urgent cases, the accused artificially divided the contracts, so as to show the estimated value of each of them to be less than the amount of 139,000 euros,” accusing Ms. Nikolaou of infringing the legislation, even the provisions that had been specially enacted by the government due to the pandemic. (we note here that the basic law for Public Procurement of Works, Supplies and Services is the law 4412/2016 – Government Gazette A ‘147 / 08.08.2016– , on the basis of which Greek legislation has been adapted to Directives 2014/24 / EU and 2014/25 / EU on public procurement).

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The complaint details that:

One of the 14 companies that received a direct contract was established just the day before the submission of its offer, while it did not have offices and employees and, apart from this contract, it has not shown any other commercial activity in any sector at all.
Some companies amended their articles of association just a few days before receiving contracts from the General Secretariat for Anti-Crime Policy, in order to include in their corporate purposes the subject matter in question.
Four companies did not have any related activity in the field of the contracts, as they were mainly engaged in different commercial activities.
Three companies were, during the same time period, offering the services in question (either on their websites or as participants in other public tenders) at lower prices.
A company received 506,740 euros for the disinfection of the country’s 34 prisons, the Volos Male Education Foundation and their 120 official vehicles, as well as pest control services in the prisons. However, the company was assigned the project with three consecutive decisions by Sofia Nikolaou, with the amount of each assignment far exceeding the limit of 139,000 euros. Furthermore, the previous economic activity of the company does not detail anything related to disinfection or pest control, nor has it ever concluded any other agreement with the public sector. In fact, the provision of cleaning and disinfection services were added to the purposes of the company in the General Commercial Register (GEMI) just one day after the date of the first assignment. Furthermore, the contractor did not perform the work itself, but assigned it to subcontractors.
A company that received a public sector contract worth 213,400 euros for the supply of personal hygiene, cleaning and disinfection items for prisons was established just one day before submitting its offer to the General Secretariat for Anti-Crime Policy. It does not appear to have offices or employees, has not submitted a balance sheet and has never entered into another public sector contract.

Where is the problem with the rule of law?

In a state governed by the rule of law, following principles of transparency and accountability, the government and public authorities in general must spend public money in strict adherence to national and EU law. These laws aim at preventing the squandering of public funds and embezzlement of public money so that it does not end up with natural and legal persons who enjoy privileged and clientelistic relationships with the authorities. However, according to the criminal complaint, the relevant legal framework was not applied in this case.

Thodoris Chondrogiannos

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Criminal complaint filed by SYRIZA against the Secretary General of Anti-Crime Policy, Sofia Nikolaou

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