On the night of the Tempe crash, security measures and protocols were violated, the former transport minister reiterated. Costas Ah. Karamanliswhich – in the process of answering questions from deputies of all parties that followed its placement in Committee on Institutions and Transparency– He stated that he was at the disposal of justice.

Mr. Karamanlis stated that “Given that there was a local electronic control system at a particular station, i.e. remote control, the head of the station had the opportunity and obligation, on the basis of the Rules, to plot the route electronically and decided to do it manually. He did the engraving by hand and made a mistake. He forced the train to run a red signal and reversed. He was supposed to follow the prescribed procedures by talking to the train drivers and confirming the order they had given, which he also did not. The head of the station – here again it turns out that there was a remote control system – watched the progress of the train for 12 minutes and could not stop the fatal accident. Worst of all – and this speaks to the pathologies of the State, which are not relevant and not limited to the EfE – is that before 11 pm there should have been two more who were not there. This indicates that security protocols have been violated.”

“I have made an honest effort to keep the situation low despite the incredible challenges, because I don’t think it helps to confront. What was done and what was not done at the convention of 717 is clear. Now let’s wait for justice. Because everyone can now play know-it-all and point the finger. I resigned, taking on political responsibility. There may also be administrative and managerial responsibilities. We will not judge it here. The court will judge. And I am at the disposal of justice to testify my opinion. This is the reality and the facts as I believe they happened, and I present them with complete honesty. I am present and will always be present in public debates,” said Mr. Karamanlis.

Mr. Karamanlis responded to questions received from deputies of all parliamentary factions and refuted the assertion of former transport minister Christos Spircis that 1 billion jobs were done on the railway under the previous government. “There have never been 1 billion projects within SYRIZA, but it doesn’t matter now. Let me remind you that although Mr. Spircis is now saying that fragmented contracts are to blame for the delay in the project, when the current government went to unify them, he spoke out, and as an oppositionist voted against. I clearly took political responsibility and explained why I resigned. I beg your pardon, but this has happened more than once in the political life of the country in recent years.”

In particular, the former Minister of Transport answered the deputies’ questions and stated:

• Regarding the statement “We do not play with train safety” in Parliament: “A disparate statement is playing and playing again, which talks about railway safety,” said Mr. Karamanlis, specifying that his report was about the issue of SYRIZA MP Alexandros Meikopoulos about the Pelion rollercoaster. At the same time, the deputy asked that the hills be taken over by the municipality, because it would be safer. There, as mentioned by Mr. Karamanlis, he said that the particular local route was safe and that, in his opinion, it was unacceptable to bypass the procedures and the Railway Regulatory Authority, which had not yet been done in Europe. “Therefore, the installation of the opposition is beautiful, but the truth is better,” he said characteristically and filed an extract from his testimony in parliament into the minutes, “so that we can speak with facts,” he emphasized.
• Mr. Karamanlis, speaking about the cooperation of the son of the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court in the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Dogiakos, explained that he had known him as a lawyer for a long time and appreciated his abilities. When he joined the ministry as a successor, his father was not a Supreme Court attorney, and when his father took on the Tempes case, he ceased to be a partner in the ministry. However, he expressed concern that the official leader of the opposition is attacking the prosecutor of the Supreme Court. Addressing SYRIZA, he said that a month and a half ago “when you thought that the position of the judiciary suits you, you said “there are judges in Athens”, now you are demanding the resignation of the Supreme Court. prosecutor in his son’s case.
• Asked if he had contact with EfE trade union activists and if he knew their exit address, which had been given to EfE and given to the Ministry of Transport, Mr. Karamanlis stated that he had seen them several times. and at these meetings they only raised issues of wages and collective bargaining agreements, “they did not deal with security issues, nor with the promotion of the implementation of relevant projects.” “As a minister, I have made every effort to address them, and in fact we have signed the SSE with the approval of the General State Accounting Office, always respecting the independence of the Railway Regulatory Authority (RAS), which clearly has as its goal the safety in rail transport,” he said.
• Concerning the responsibilities and position of the Railway Regulatory Authority, Mr. Karamanlis said that national and Community legislation required a complete separation of the responsibilities of the RAS and the responsibilities of the ministry. The RAS is not just a regulator of the rail transport market, it is first and foremost an independent national safety body, he noted and added that its responsibilities include ensuring the overall maintenance of rail safety, its continuous improvement, as well as technical and scientific activities. . progress, giving priority to accident prevention. “Therefore, if anyone had to warn the ministry about security problems in railway transport, it was the Russian Academy of Sciences,” he said.
• Referring to rumors that the station chief was hired for a “bribe”, Mr. Karamanlis said that under the law there were no problems with his transfer, and his training was based on the provisions of RAS. He spoke out against SYRIZA, stating that it creates a false impression for partisan gain. He stated that, as required by law, 18 mobility vacancies were open prior to recruitment and only two people showed up. “There were no problems with the transfer, since the law on mobility, like the Regulations on the OGE, does not provide for an age limit. This only applies to new employees. He also trained as usual for six months for 800 hours and passed the exams in accordance with the procedure prescribed by the RAN and which was also subject to the government of SYRIZA. So what was this bribery? he reported.
  Despite this, Mr. Karamanlis noted that today the RAS, after the holiday and after the accident, is late with the issue of training the head of the station and says that the training was problematic. “There is a contradiction in this. Because you cannot, on the one hand, approve the training process and come after the accident, and you are more responsible for the training process and say that a mistake was made. The conclusions are clear,” he said.
• Regarding the issue of compensation to the project contractor due to delays for the period when the project was stopped, Mr. Karamanlis said that: In March 2020, the contractor requested 26 million euros for delays in the period that the project was stopped and after the recommendation of the OSE technical council was decided to receive 2.5 million euros. In April 2020, they requested an additional 7 million euros and finally the amount of 564,000 euros was determined. In other words, the money that was not paid because the project was not completed is 3 million out of 33 million euros.
• Regarding the warning letter he sent with his resignation, RDMS President Mr. Karamanlis replied that he did not raise security issues for the current situation in contract 717, but for the future when the work is completed. He noted that the central arguments of this particular person were rejected by the National Transparency Authority, although he himself made diametrically opposite decisions on another contract. “When we received our resignation, we went to TEE as an expert and did exactly what the National Transparency Authority instructed us to do, so no charges are being filed there either,” he said.
• Finally, with regard to the conclusion of the Transparency Authority, he said that there was an act of filing an application by the Athens Prosecutor’s Office of Appeal, Financial Crime Department. He said the FDA’s conclusion is mainly about where the project left off in 2016 and resumed in 2019. He also said that 18 people were also disciplined and fired.

Source: RES-IPE