The Office of the European Commissioner of Prosecutors in Athens has found serious criminal responsibility for the famous contract 717, the purpose of which was to modernize the signaling system and remote control of traffic on the railway network of Greece, writes To Vima, reported by Rador. Radio Romania

The shortcomings in the implementation of this contract are related to the tragic train disaster in Tempe in February 2023, which resulted in 57 deaths, especially young people, and the failure to meet the established obligations has harmed the Greek state and Europe. The union exceeds 15 million euros.

Following a preliminary criminal investigation completed within a year by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, criminal prosecution was ordered against 23 individuals, 18 of whom are civil servants, for a number of criminal acts, such as fraud, embezzlement, false attestation, with the aim of obtaining an undue advantage, incitement to fraud and false certification.

Based on the evidence and after hearing the explanations of the persons who are in the status of suspects, criminal proceedings were opened regarding:

• 14 civil servants of ERGOSE (the company responsible for the railway modernization works in Greece n.trans.), for fraud related to subsidies. Two of them are also accused of providing false certificates for the purpose of obtaining an illegal benefit for the benefit of other persons;

• -4 civil servants of the Greek Office for the Management of the Operational Program of Transport Infrastructure, Environment and Sustainable Development for misappropriation of funds;

• 5 legal representatives and employees of the Consortium of Works Contractors as moral authors of subsidy fraud and fake certificates for the purpose of obtaining undue benefits for the benefit of other people.

The charges relate to the implementation of the Contract for the restoration of the signaling system – remote control of traffic on the section of the Athens – Thessaloniki – Promakhonas railway, which was signed in 2014 with a deadline of 2016 – known as “Contract 717”.

In 2019, a supplemental contract was signed for the same project, which amended the original physical facility of Contract 717. The supplemental contract included the construction of a completely new signaling system with new telemetry units to provide communication and data transmission between railway stations, as a also from stations to dispatch centers.

Both contracts were co-financed by the EU Cohesion Fund under the program “Modernisation of Signaling – Remote Control and Installation of the European Train Control System (ETCS)”, the EU contribution was 85%.

Poor performance of the contract, damage to the interests of the EU and the Greek state

The collected evidence provides grounds for concluding that the contract was not properly executed, according to the criminal proceedings authorities.

According to the criminal investigation, a total of seven illegal extensions of the original contract were granted based on the decisions of the ERGOSE board of directors. For this reason, more than nine years after the signing of Contract 717, the work has not been completed.

Based on the data of the investigation, the competent authorities assume that the employees of the administrative body, responsible for the management of funds, acted in violation of the principles of proper management of these assets.

Prosecutors admit that despite the fact that the information provided by ERGOSE employees was clearly incorrect and incomplete, civil servants of the Administrative Authority approved the provision of the relevant funds, causing damage to the financial interests of the EU and the Greek State in the amount of more than 15.6 million euros.

For this reason, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office forwarded a copy of the case file to the competent Greek public prosecutor’s office to verify the presence of elements of breach of duty by the inspectors-controllers of the Hellenic National Transparency Authority in Greece, who were appointed by the national law enforcement authorities to verify the implementation of Contract 717.

In this case, the European Public Prosecutor’s Office has decided to refer the case to the competent authorities in Greece for appropriate action, as the facts that are the subject of this new investigation do not constitute a crime within the scope of the EPPO.

We will remind that the European Prosecutor’s Office, guided by the law and the Constitution, submitted the case regarding political figures to the Greek Parliament in the summer of last year.