Any investigation is welcome and self-evident when a complaint is made, said Pavlos Marinakis, responding to a question about a Politico article that talks about an investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office regarding complaints about EU funds amounting to 2.5 billion euros that were granted to just 10 companies in Greece, while adding that the specific tenders have been fully audited by the Court of Auditors.

At the same time, the government representative added that the government and the individual ministries have always acted with a view to complying with all the prescribed procedures.

In particular, he stated that “I am not a representative of independent authorities[…] the opposition parties have confused the roles a bit, we represent the government, the executive[…] The investigation of the Competition Commission concerns a complaint that has been made. Very rightly so, because Greece is a state of law, contrary to what some believe, an independent Authority is required by the opposition to investigate it when there is a complaint. This is happening even now. The second is that the government and individual ministries, even in crisis situations such as the pandemic and in the previous years to which this complaint refers, have always acted with the aim of protecting citizens, maintaining transparency and strictly following all rules of all prescribed procedures. In fact, the specific tenders to which the specific complaint refers – because they are from an amount and above have been fully audited by the Audit Court. That is, they are approved by the competent department of Greek justice. The evidence is at the disposal of the independent Authority, it is always at the disposal of justice. Any inquiry is welcome and it goes without saying when a complaint is made. Let us remind you of the very strict internal control framework that has especially the monitoring and implementation of the Recovery Fund projects implemented by the Commission and based on this mechanism, Greece is in the first 3 positions in terms of the implementation of all investment and reform milestones and also the disbursement of resources[…]».

Politico reports that authorities are investigating allegations of fraud linked to how €2.5bn of EU funds from the Recovery Fund were allocated to just 10 companies in Greece.

The same publication states that the Greek Competition Commission raided last month the offices of the country’s three telecommunications companies, Cosmote, Vodafone and Nova, as well as five IT companies and two consultants. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has also launched an investigation.

The investigation by the Greek authorities focuses on public tender procedures in which the companies allegedly colluded not to “beat” the same contract, which limited the number of companies that benefited.

The investigation concerns funds from the EU Recovery Fund, with an initial value of 723 billion euros, which grants loans and grants to the 27 countries of the bloc. Last week, police arrested more than 20 suspects in Italy, Austria, Romania and Slovakia linked to an alleged scheme to defraud the treasury of 600 million euros in Italy.

With €35.95 billion worth of projects, Greece is one of the main beneficiaries of the fund, known as the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF). About a fifth of this amount goes to the country’s digital transformation, according to the plan submitted to the European Commission.

To date, around 600 digital projects worth more than €2.5 billion have been tendered and contracted, according to data from the Central Electronic Register of Public Contracts. The European Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Hellenic Competition Commission are investigating how these projects were awarded.

In a statement, Greece’s competition commission said it was looking into whether there was a breach of the EU treaty that “prohibits anti-competitive agreements and decisions by associations of undertakings that prevent, restrict or distort competition, unilateral practices that constitute an invitation to collusion or future price announcements to competitors and abuse of a dominant position”.

Vodafone confirmed the investigation by the competition commission.
Between them, the 10 companies under investigation won contracts for more than 600 technology projects between 2020 and 2023, worth at least €100,000 each. Few of these projects had more than one bid during the tender process.

The investigation began when European Dynamics, a Greek software and IT services company, filed a complaint in November 2023 with the European Commission, which oversees the management of the RRF, alleging that a public tender was biased in favor of certain companies.