The verdict of the Inquiry on the Siemens scandal

By Hristos Bokas

Referred from PASOK are: Tsohatzopoulos, Mantelis, Papantoniou, Verelis, Hristodoulakis, and from ND: Liapis, Markogiannakis, Alogoskoufis, Voulgarakis, Papathanasiou, Pavlopoulos, Polydoras

After 11 months of research that included hundreds of meetings and tens of hearings, the verdict of the Inquiry Committee investigating the Siemens scandal was submitted late on Monday. The finding which includes the positions of the majority expressed by members-MP’s of PASOK is divided into 8 basic chapters which inter alia describes the flow of “black money”, the funds of political parties and the damage to the Greek State. The essential chapter of the assessment where the responsibilities of political or non-political persons are imputed and further investigation is asked on Mihalis Liapis, Hristos Markogiannakis, Giorgos Alogoskoufis, Giorgos Voulgarakis, Giannis Papathanasiou, Prokopis Pavlopoulos from and Akis Tsohatzopoulos, Tasos Mantelis, Giannos Papantoniou, Hristos Verelis and Nikos Hristodoulakis, mentions among other things:

Tasos Mantelis
The former Transport minister is charged with the framework agreements 8002 of OTE, presenting a series of arguments that prove the endangerment of the public interest and also for rough tracking performance of the Operational Objective of the Agency with the bribe of 250.000 euros from Siemens' black funds.

Hristos Verelis
The former Transport minister is charged with lack of supervision in OTE and with wrong operations in OSE. It should be noted that the Committee thinks that as minister he had the responsibility of supervising the program contracts between OSE and Siemens.

Giannos Papantoniou
The former Finance minister is also charged with actions regarding OTE. He is attributed with negligence in the performance of ministerial responsibilities on the C4I system.

Nikos Hristodoulakis
The former Finance minister is also charged for operations in OTE that led to the initial amount of the agreement being tripled. Nor did he conduct a check to shield the public and the OTE interest. Additionally, he did not conduct a check when the reserve stock, of 150bil drachmas, in OTE warehouses was published.

Mihalis Liapis
The formers Transport minister is charged among other things, with trying to shake off his responsibilities as a minister back then, when asked by other MP’s about the legal framework of DEKO, answers that he could not cancel a competition that has already been awarded. He is also checked for his handlings on the OTE and OSE issues.

Giorgos Alogoskoufis
His responsibilities are also on the OTE case. According to the finding when the scandal broke out in 2006 the former minister neither asked immediately from Panagiotis Vourloumis for the application of cost accounting and clauses to ensure the price premium for the benefit of the Greek State and OTE, nor did he turn to court, as he should have had against Siemens, claiming the damage suffered by the State.
Additionally, Alogoskoufis is charged with actions that covered up the scandal, mainly the dismantling of the Authority of Combating black money, head of which was Giorgos Zorbas.

Giannis Papathanasiou
The former Finance minister is charged for covering the scandal too, since even though he accepted the NSK consultation, which suggested the procedure that could have led to the ousting of Siemens from contracts already signed with the State, he took no further action.

Giorgos Voulgarakis
The former Public Order minister, even as the responsible minister, attended inadequately the progress of the C4I contract. This behavior was objectively able to hurt the State because the renegotiation of the contract and the non-deductibility of SAIC resulted in damage to the State.

Vyron Polydoras
With the amendment no5 of the contract that Polydoras signed as Public Order minister came the most important change as the C4I delivery as a subsystem was initiated. This way the system’s delivery that must have been with the key at hand was eliminated and the control of the system’s interoperability was excluded, even though it was a requirement of the contract in 2003.

Prokopis Pavlopoulos
The actions of the former minister of Interior regarding C4I arouse questions to the members of the committee who have decided it is quite obvious that he did not managed with due attention the public property.

Hristos Markogiannakis
A series of actions by Markogiannakis both as vice minister of Public Order and as deputy minister of Interior, led the Committee members to the verdict that along with his omissions, he did not manage properly and carefully the public property, since Saic and Siemens benefited financially from his behavior with respective damage to the State.

Akis Tsohatzopoulos
As a former Public Defence minister he is charged for his actions during the period 1996-2001. The committee combines the orders of weapons systems during his ministership with confessions of managers of Siemens’ black funds that they bribed for the Patriots.