Conducting a preliminary investigation ordered the Prosecutor of First Instance Anastasios Kesisis to the Criminal Court of Thessaloniki, after the cancellation, by the Council of State (StE), of the competition of the Municipality of Thessaloniki regarding the canopies at the OASTH bus stops.

In his written order, the public prosecutor requests that the crimes of disloyalty and breach of duty be investigated, while the Public Prosecutor is instructed to collect the project file with the relevant documents, the decision of the Financial Committee of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, etc. The findings of the preliminary examination are expected to be evaluated by a Prosecutor responsible for economic crimes.

The prosecutor’s order is based on reports, according to which the CoE annulled the decision of the Economic Committee of the Municipality of Thessaloniki, by which the tender announcement had been approved.

The specific competition was judged to have a “photographic” arrangementbecause it required the condition that the contractor – who would undertake a total of 336 billboards – had drawn up at least two contracts “with an object of similar overall size to the present auction” (with other public or private bodies or local government bodies).

The SC has reportedly decided that this condition has been set abusively, because with it, without any reason of public interest and to the detriment of the interests of the Municipality, an unjustified and disproportionate restriction of the circle of participants is introduced, limiting them to those who are active in advertising in canopies of urban transport stops and not in general in outdoor advertising and to those who have been selected as contractors in related competitions of the municipalities of Athens and Thessaloniki.