The “carousel” of gaps and delays in the restoration of signaling on the railway network is recorded in the report of the National Transparency Agency.

As it turns out, the project, started in 2014 and still unfinished, already had problems in the way it was designed, as OSE did not have an accurate picture of the status of the previous alarm system.

Then ERGOSE showed “leniency” when the consortium started to violate the contractual terms from the first year. And later, the OZE delayed the work without giving the necessary permissions. However, EAD believes that an additional contract was necessary to complete the project.

The report of the National Transparency Authority, the contents of which are disclosed today by “K”, was compiled by a team of two auditors at the direction of the Inspection Board of Civil Servants and completed its opinion in August 2021.

The auditors examined contract 717 for the restoration of the signaling and telecommunications system on the Athens-Thessaloniki-Promachonas axis (excluding the Tiforeas-Domokos section), examining the bidding and contract award process, as well as the implementation of the project, covering the period from 2012 to 2021.

The focus of the audit, as in the following, was both the contract performance of ERGOSE and OSE and the behavior of the contractor (joint venture TOMI – Alstom).

The 180-page report, which also includes photographs, analyzes the progress of the project step by step and a carousel of omissions and delays.

• Problems began already when planning the restoration of the signaling network, which has now collapsed due to lack of maintenance, vandalism and accidents. The ERGOSE team that developed the tender documentation for the project prior to its implementation in 2013, “despite limited information from OSE on the current state of the active equipment of the project network, which needed to be restored and upgraded, did not update / check the functionality and availability of spare parts in the existing systems “. Especially for two specific systems installed by ABB and Bombardier a decade earlier, it took about two years after the signing of the contract in 2014 until the competent ERGOSE service established that they were indeed no longer in production, there were no spare parts. and they could no longer be “supported”.
• ERGOSE essentially “turned away” from the consortium when, a few months after the start of the project in 2014, it began to delay the delivery of research (as K had already found out, this was the result of an internal conflict between the two companies of the consortium). As stated, the competent authority could, if the delay in submitting certified studies for approval delayed the construction schedule, declare it untenable. According to the report, TOMI submitted to ERGOSE signaling studies signed by KOMEL, which does not have relevant experience under the terms of the tender, instead of studies signed by its partner, Alstom-Ferroviaria. An investigation by the Financial Audit Committee (EDEL) pointed to the same conclusion. However, there were delays on the part of ERGOSE in approving the studies when they were presented.
• The fine of 2.4 million euros imposed on ERGOSE by the decision of the Ministry of Finance on the proposal of the EDL (as reported by “K” 3.3.23), in the end … was never recovered. ERGOSE filed a motion with the Court of Accounts to suspend the decision, which had been made, and then filed a pending appeal.
• After the initial delays in submitting the studies, when the project finally started, the contractor started asking for more extensions, but so far his arguments were not known. According to the EAD report, the contractor requested the first extension back in 2015, citing OSE’s delay in issuing access permits to perform work, as well as banking restrictions (ceiling) during this challenging period. Almost identical were the requests and subsequent years, which eventually led to the granting of 4 extensions under the SYRIZA rule and 4 more under the New Democracy rule, with the project not being completed until at least mid-2021, as stated in report.
• Despite the problems, until October 2017, the flow of funding was stable. But then – and until the signing of an additional contract in 2021 – “the progress of the project was low and disproportionate to the time available under the contract.”
• EAD refuses ERGOSE, because, having decided to sign an additional contract to eliminate the shortcomings of the original one and having received a green light from the Accounts Chamber in 2018, it did not immediately invite the contractor to sign. He is also turning it down because he has generally been slow to mobilize to “rescue” the project and arrived in early 2019 to put pressure on Alstom to submit a certified research submission schedule. It also leaves him behind for re-submitting a draft supplementary contract to the Accounts Chamber and for delaying Alstom’s approval of remedies (she had to submit remedies after the Competition Commission found she was involved in bid-rigging at the beginning of the previous year. ). decade, otherwise he could not sign an agreement with the state).
• EAD believes that the two main changes proposed by the contractor, accepted by ERGOSE and included in the supplementary contract (which of course led to the project’s delusions, as shown by “K” 6.3.23), were legal. According to the decision, the replacement of some systems at the Oinoi-Tiforea and Plati-Promajonas sections “is a technically feasible and time-consuming action, carried out with the consent of the OSE and the EU, to combat frequent vandalism and repeated thefts. equipment”.
• According to the report (confirming what “K” wrote already on 2.3.23), the total cost of the project increased due to improvements, compensation and an additional contract to 66.1 million euros (from 41 million euros, which were in the original contract). . However, EAD does not propose that ERGOSE employees be held liable for compensation “due to complex and ongoing technical difficulties, as well as ERGOSE’s clear intention to handle the particularly difficult project to remove and upgrade the railway axle in question. “.
• EAD concludes that ERGOSE, OSE and other agencies should support the timely completion of the project “unforeseen in July 2022”. Of course, the additional contract has already been extended, and it will last at least until September of this year. “It is absolutely essential to complete the contractual physical facility of the audited project, despite carefully analyzed delays, but in strict accordance with national and EU law, in order to finally modernize the country’s rail transport network and bring it into line with legal specifications. European rail network,” concludes the EAD report.