ARTICLES
The Edelman case: Evidence suggests that the Greek government were cooperating with a multinational company before completing a tender process or signing a contract
On October 5, 2021 the Greek public company ‘Enterprise Greece’ signed a contract with the multinational company Edelman, the object of which is strategy and relations with international media. The contract amounted to 800,000 euros plus 192,000 euros for VAT. Edelman, based in London, is one of the largest communications and branding companies in the world, with 6,000 employees and 67 offices in different countries.
However, documents and reports by Reporters United show that the government’s cooperation with Edelman began as early as the summer of 2020, at a time when the open international tender had not even been announced. According to Enterprise Greece, this finally took place much later, on December 11, 2020. Indeed, by mid-2020, Edelman appeared to have communicated with international media on behalf of the Greek government on issues of the economy and entrepreneurship. A representative of the multinational company had emailed an international media reporter on Greece’s behalf on June 23, 2021, (i.e. both before the contract had been signed on October 5, 2021 but also before the final approval of the tender, which was made by the Board of Enterprise Greece on July 6, 2021.)
The case of the cooperation of the Greek government with Edelman is being investigated by the Parliamentary Committee of Inquiry, which is also investigating wrongdoing in the awarding of a 20 million euros financing packet to Greek media for the broadcasting of coronavirus information campaigns.
In the Committee of Inquiry, SYRIZA MP Giannis Ragousis asked the CEO of Enterprise Greece, Georgios Filiopoulos, to confirm whether or not Edelman acted on behalf of the Greek government before the tender was concluded and the contract signed. However, Mr. Filiopoulos, despite being asked this question several times, refused to confirm or deny any prior cooperation, noting only that all deadlines were met and the principles of openness were observed.
This refusal to provide detailed information on the issue for the sake of transparency was made despite the fact that Enterprise Greece is a public body, and the case concerns a public tender for the award of public money.
Mr. Filiopoulos also admitted to the Committee that there was a request for Enterprise Greece to be exempted from the obligation to post its acts and decisions on the Greek government transparency portal, Diavgeia, even though this is a legal obligation provided for in law 3861/2010, to enhance transparency in the agreements and transactions of the Greek public sector. He justified the request by saying that posting on the portal is “a time-consuming process,” adding that this does not mean that we “operate without transparency, or that we would not develop a system of full transparency on our website, replacing it with something that would be more functional for a public limited company.”
In a state governed by the rule of law, public bodies and companies’ cooperation with private companies must take place after a legal tender has been announced and a contract has been signed. Furthermore, the contract resulting from the tender should be published on the relevant website, as stipulated by Greek law 3861/2010, for the sake of transparency of transactions concerning public funds.
However, in this case Edelman allegedly cooperated with the Greek government long before the planned tender procedure was complete, and before the relevant contract was signed, and furthermore, requested that the public company Enterprise Greece be exempted from its legal transparency obligations to post its transactions on the Greek government portal Diavgeia.
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