He brought his beneficiaries abroad Program “Save – Self-sufficiency”involved engineers and contractors who undertook its implementation with loans reaching up to 80% of the control mechanism Hellenic Development Bank (EDB). The number of pending applications is 12,500, which corresponds to 38% of the total number of applications submitted to the programme, with the result that grants of around €260 million cannot be paid. Of the approximately 37,000 applications submitted to the program with a total budget of €740 million, 21,000 have so far been approved and allocated €390 million, 3,500 are in the evaluation process and 62 are in the payment stage.

Conflict

Delays in payments reach up to six months, while ETA blames the engineers involved, explaining them with omissions in the files and inconsistencies between the various accompanying documents submitted and those posted in the information system, and the engineers talk about the “irrelevance” of the auditor in relation to the subject he took on themselves, and “joking and even offensive” remarks that were used as an excuse to delay payments under the program. Indeed, in the proposals that they jointly make to its political leadership Ministry of Environment and Energy, TEE And Panhellenic Association of Certified Energy Inspectors including the question of improving the control work by specialized personnel with technical knowledge of the subject. “It is not possible for the file and payout to be pending due to comments that highlight that the appraiser does not understand what it is assessing,” characteristically read in a joint statement from the two bodies and joint letters from their presidents, Mr. Giorgos Stasinos. and Konstantinos Laskos, respectively, to the MINISTRY. They also propose that all comments on the file be sent at the first check, which will not take more than 30 days for the initial check and 15 days for the second check.

Subsidies in the amount of 260 million euros cannot be paid.

These two bodies report serious problems in the process of reviewing applications falling within the purview of the EBA, as evidenced by complaints from their members. Among other things, long delays are reported in evaluating final disbursement requests, and it is noted as a “paradox” that very often, if not usually, response times increase as comments close and approval nears completion.

“The initial feeling of the consultants, which has now become a conviction, is that it is desirable not to close applications, but to leave them on hold,” the joint statement said. It is also noted that it is impossible for the beneficiary and his representatives to contact the controller even by e-mail, since none of them actually answers. The most basic problem is the partial control of applications with continuous and random “duplicate” and “invalid” observations now occurring across all applications. It is reported, for example, that the same comment is repeated three times for an already placed element. “The situation is getting worse and worse. With all due respect, we note that a number of such comments seem playful and even offensive in relation to our activities, especially in a specific program, and have reached the engineers, which is commonly called their limits,” the message says. observations do not have a logical or contractual basis for the program, they note and mention as an example that a full gas study was requested, while all submission data and approval of the study by the competent authority were provided. that the technical design auditor has nothing to do with it and understanding – a particularly unfortunate and offensive element for the work of the engineers involved,” is noted and cited as an example of an explanation being requested, “because the surface area of ​​the surrounding wall does not match the area of ​​the object.”

Supporting documents

EBA auditors also appear to ask for supporting documents that are not referenced in the program manual, as well as responsible declarations, which are also not mentioned in the manual and serve no purpose. For example, a beneficiary is asked to make a responsible claim that their occupation is “private” when all documents already state “private”, effectively leading to beneficiaries writing a false claim as “private” does not actually exist. class. Suppliers and engineers are also required to make a responsible declaration of the VAT status they belong to and the percentage it has on their invoice when the document shows exactly 24% VAT and all documents are now mandatory to be transferred to the company’s myData information system Ministry of Finance, which is associated with periodic VAT returns. These are just some of the illustrative examples mentioned in the joint letter from the two bodies.