EPPO probing cost of Greek migrant camps
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) has opened an investigation into Greece’s management of EU funds for the construction of migrant reception and accommodation camps in the period 2020-21.
The focus of the investigation is the extravagant cost of projects that were awarded to private companies without a public tender, after the government cited increased migrant flows. Two of the projects allegedly under scrutiny are the camps in Malakasa, north of Athens, and Sintiki, in the region of Serres, northern Greece.
The project in Malakasa concerned the expansion of the existing camp to accommodate 1,500 migrants transferred from the islands. Kathimerini found that the contract was awarded in April 2020 to a company based in Athens. The initial contract for the configuration and basic maintenance of the structure was worth €4.3 million. The project was delivered after at least five extensions, and after a supplementary contract worth €1.7 million was signed.
The contract for the second facility in Sintiki was awarded in July 2020 to a technical company based in Kavala, with an initial cost of €3.6 million. Public records show that the construction received at least three extensions until its completion, while the competent services had in the meantime proposed two supplementary contracts totaling €1.7 million.
The construction of the camps in Malakasa and Serres is also mentioned in an internal document of an international organization. Their cost is incomparable with any similar project built in Greece. “The prices are estimated at approximately double those of previous interventions and a general comparison of similar projects showed a difference between +5% and +288%. In most projects, it is at +100%,” the document states. “The EU has financed very similar actions that were completed in the same or a shorter period of time, with an amount 15 times lower than that paid by the [Greek] Ministry of Migration and Asylum.”
It was estimated that in facilities with similar characteristics built by the same government, €270 were spent per beneficiary compared to €3,900 in Malakasa.
Kathimerini
