EL 
EN 
Following a complaint, an audit was carried out for the period 2013 to 2019 in a Municipality of the Region of Central Macedonia regarding the tendering procedure for the award, implementation and receipt of two supplies (system for reviewing and recording the operational status of pipelines and boreholes, digital flow sensors, etc.) relating to the upgrade of water supply and sewerage networks of this Municipality, with a budget of 8.064.800,00 € and 7.591.350,00 €, respectively. The financing of the two procurements was included in the administrative region of Macedonia - Thrace 2007-2013.
During the audit it was found that:
- The notices for the two procurements were not published as required by the legislation in force
- The evaluation of the technical and financial offers of the two tenders was carried out only by the Chairman of the Evaluation Committee, who subsequently forged the signature of one of the two other members and issued exact copies of the Evaluation Proceedings without the originals documents
- With regard to the supply of items for the upgrade of the water supply network, the audit revealed the absence of legal sales documents and certification of their installation
- It is alleged that non-legal supporting documents were issued and it is alleged that some items of the supply were delivered for the sole purpose of testing and stocking items of the supply contract and not for sale to the municipality in question. These were received on behalf of the Municipality not by the competent Receiving Committee but by the same official who was the Chairman of the Evaluation Committee. The above items included a specially designed VAN with a Portable Leakage Station, for which, when requested by the Municipality, a vehicle registration document with a later date than the alleged date of receipt was provided
- Documents with a false date were issued unauthorisedly by the same official mentioned above, which led to a payment of € 3.018.980,88 to the consortium contractor, which did not comply with the formula that should have been followed for this procedure (payment order and certification instead of the correct receipt protocol). The above documents were forwarded for signature and were also signed by a second employee of the Municipality, who during the audit claimed not to have understood what he/she was signing
- A false Certificate of Good Execution was issued for the timely and in accordance with the specifications and the other documents of the contract, supply and installation of the items worth 3.018.980,88 €. Following this, the contractor appealed to the civil courts for a payment order, which the court issued. Subsequently, the then Chairman of the Economic Committee and Mayor did not raise the issue of whether or not to appeal the decision of the payment order to the Economic Committee, as he was obliged to do, and the order became final and the contractor consortium was paid
- All the above actions of the Municipality's employees and of the then President of the Economic Committee and Mayor contributed substantially and in a crucial way to the payment of part of the supply of the upgrade of the water supply network amounting to € 3,018,980.88 as well as the legal costs awarded against the Municipality, amounting to € 59,770.00 and other expenses amounting to € 1,194.00, despite the failure to meet the legal requirements
The Audit Report was forwarded to:
- a) the Municipality concerned for disciplinary action against the officials involved
- b) to the Athens Prosecutor's Office of the Court of Appeal for criminal assessment, while an extract of the Audit Report was forwarded
- c) to the Independent Public Revenue Authority with a proposal to carry out an audit on the contractor consortium and
- d) to the General Directorate of Financial Crime Prosecution of the Ministry of Finance with a proposal to carry out an audit on the contractor consortium.