Greece’s Court of Audit has found out that direct assignments by public administration bodies worth approximately 4.5 billion euros have been made only for the years 2021-2022.
The majority of these contracts, 314,006 in total, made by direct award or by negotiation without prior publication of the procurement were made by public hospitals.
The “party” of billions of euros with direct assignments from the public during the Mitsotakis administration is confirmed by the Court of Audit report.
According to the data obtained from the Unified Authority for Public Contracts for the years 2021 – 2022 alone, 314,006 contracts were awarded by direct award or by negotiation without prior publication of a notice, with the cost amounting to almost 4.5 billion euros.
The audit revealed that most direct assignments were made to the country’s public hospitals.
The Court of Audit, after having audited 64 public bodies and a sample of 5,073 contracts, formalizes the tactics and addresses a series of recommendations.
Already in May, daily Ef.Syn. had revealed that the direct assignments of the New Democracy government within a period of two and a half years (from 1/1/2020 to 1/6/2022), they reached 8.45 billion euros, based on data from the Single Independent Public Procurement Authority.
The 7-point conclusion of the Court of Auditors states:
Public bodies do not plan timely and rationally to cover their needs. They adapt their needs to the limit of direct assignments by covering them piecemeal and making divisions.
The unforeseeable and urgent nature of the needs covered by recourse to the negotiated procedure is not sufficiently justified. Procuring agencies equate “unforeseen” with “urgent”.
There is significant room for improvement in the substantial participation of the body’s administrative services during the process that precedes the final decision so as not to create suspicions of arbitrariness and opacity.
In many cases, the subject of the contract is not clearly defined, nor is the method of calculating the estimated cost revealed. No evidence of previous market research.
There are no guarantees of transparency regarding the selection of the contractor and the determination of the price, especially when repeated assignments are made to the same contractor. There are no predetermined and therefore verifiable selection criteria for those invited to submit a bid. The price is not negotiable. Low to zero discount rates are offered. Electronic market systems are not widely implemented.
The highest percentage of direct assignments was seen in hospitals. A small percentage of their contracts are awarded through competitive processes due to chronic systemic weaknesses combined with the urgent need to supply medicines and other consumables. Appeal to legal provisions.
Public bodies do not have a system for evaluating complaints and using them to improve the integrity of the direct procurement process.
Among the recommendations by the Court of Audit are:
Public bodies should systematically monitor their stocks and the execution of current contracts in order to be able to know their real needs and plan their coverage in time with the appropriate process.
They must install a system for recording their needs, taking advantage of the possibilities now provided by information systems.
For permanent, periodic and recurring contracts, the solution of the tender with an implementation horizon beyond one financial year could be considered. Electronic purchasing systems and the possibility of concluding framework agreements could also be exploited.
Tenders must be announced before a reasonable period of time depending on the average duration of similar tenders in the past, so as to avoid the necessary time for their completion. Delays due to legal appeals must be taken into account.
PS it’s not secret in the Greek public that direct assignments can bring hefty kickbacks and newspaper EfSyn called it a “party” with billions of euros….