While the Mitsotakis government‘s decision acquitting former Transport Minister Kostas Karamanlis for the tragic Tembi accident with 57 dead, blaming the fatal accident only on the stationmaster and the dead drivers has been seen as questionable by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office sighting for the incompleted 717 contracts and the tele-signaling projects.
The conclusion in the indictment drawn up by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office points out that if the 717 contract had been completed, then the accident would have been prevented, thus rejecting the conclusion of the Mitsotakis government and the claims of Karamanlis that no technology would have been able to prevent the crash!
“The accused ERGOSE employees had no sincere intention to implement Contract 717/2014 and implement its scope – which was inextricably linked to train traffic safety, as demonstrated most tragically by the accident at Andendros and the recent fatal accident at Tempe, which would certainly have been avoided if the scope of Contract 717 had been completed with the ETCS system in operation,” the European Public Prosecutor’s indictment states.
A copy of the case file on the failure to implement the contract is already in the hands of the special investigator Sotiris Bakaimi. According to the report of news247, already 14 former ERGOSE executives have received summonses for a statement before the European investigator in Athens. They are charged on a case-by-case basis, for felony fraud on grants against the European Union jointly – the Contract 717 was financed 85% with Community funds and shows false certification aiding and abetting the above.
EPGSE Contract 717 was signed in 2014 with an initial budget of EUR 41.3 million. It concerned the construction of 52 stations and three telecommunications centres, from Athens to Thessaloniki and Promahonas. Telecommand is crucial because without it, the ETCS control system, which automatically brakes trains if they exceed a set speed or a serious problem is detected, cannot function.
According to the same information, the project has been awarded to the consortium of the companies TOMI (a subsidiary of Actoras) and the French company ALSTOM TRANSPORT SA. The contract provided for the project to be delivered within two years, but until the Tempi accident, nine years later, it remained on paper. Between 2016 and 2021, a total of eight requests for extensions were accepted by ERGOSE’s management, without the contractor being declared out of contract. The defendants “sought to serve the financial interests of the consortium”, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office says.
According to the indictment, the two companies had arbitrarily divided the project into two parts – north and south. In practice, each of the two parts of the same network was equipped with different software and different terminals. ALSTOM’s more experienced Frenchmen did not certify Actoras’ studies, as the original agreement provided, as they saw the Greek company as a competitor, although in the same consortium. And at the same time, ERGOSE did not press Hector to fulfill its contractual obligations.
The investigation also revealed that sub-sections of the project were allegedly awarded to smaller companies and contractors, which had no experience in railway projects or could not submit studies. Witnesses who were excluded from the Commission of Inquiry, but testified to the investigator, said that extensions had been granted for some sections of the project without studies being submitted.
“If the intention of the accused ERGOSE officials was to execute the project-physical object of Contract 717, they would not have waited 35 full months, almost three years, after the final positive opinion of the Grand Chamber of the Court of Auditors for the signing of the 1st S.C.E., which was finally signed on 19-05-2021, i.e. seven years and four months from the signing of the original Contract 717,” the indictment notes.
