EL 
EN 
Following two anonymous complaints submitted to the National Transparency Authority (NTA), an audit was conducted on a Legal Entity under Public Law (LEPL) operating within the Local Government sector in the Attica Region. The audit was conducted with the objective of assessing the legality of the actions undertaken by the audited entity in relation to the award of specific public contracts.
A total of 18 contracts were examined, falling under the following categories:
- The restoration of green spaces and the provision of horticultural services.
- Procurement of two applications for educational and informational purposes
- Two administrative support programmes.
- The award of COVID-19 testing services during the pandemic period
The audit of these contracts revealed the following findings:
- Following three direct award procedures and one open electronic procedure below EU thresholds, the entity awarded four contracts of a similar scope (horticultural services), with a total budget of €272,865. This constitutes artificial (and thus impermissible) contract splitting for the provision of services.
- Furthermore, the entity engaged in the practice of unlawful contract splitting for service provision contracts totalling €59,800. This was due to the entity's failure to consolidate similar needs and instead awarding two contracts of identical scope (web application development) through direct award procedures.
- It employed inappropriate CPV (Common Procurement Vocabulary) codes to describe the scope of two other ICT service contracts, with a total budget of €117,900, in order to justify their direct award, despite not meeting the legal requirements for such a procedure.
- It assigned the procedures for the award of service contracts concerning molecular COVID-19 testing—totaling €670,766—to an internal unit that, according to the entity’s Internal Regulations of Service, did not hold the relevant authority to perform such tasks.
- Furthermore, the audit revealed procedural irregularities in the decision-making process concerning the aforementioned contracts. While the decisions appeared to have been taken unanimously, there was no confirmation of the participation of the members of the collective body. It is evident that the provisions of the Code of Administrative Procedure regarding Collective Administrative Bodies were not adhered to. Furthermore, the applicable regulations and circulars related to remote or written decision-making procedures were also not observed.
As part of its audit, the NTA issued recommendations to the entity to ensure that the operation of its internal units aligns with the responsibilities defined in its Internal Regulations of Service, thereby promoting optimal functionality and legality of its operations.
Based on the audit report, disciplinary action was recommended against an elected official and certain employees of the entity. The report was forwarded to both the Secretary of the Decentralized Administration and the President of the entity for the exercise of their respective disciplinary powers. Finally, the report was submitted to the Athens Court of Appeals Prosecutor for the examination of potential criminal liability and possible correlation with any existing case files.