Immediate was the response of the municipal opposition faction «Free Kythira» to the formal questions put by the Kythera.News to the members of the City Council, on the occasion of the serious allegations made by the original designer of the project, Mr. George Syrmalis (document «Vol 2»).
The minority opposition party was the first to put its cards on the table, putting its full weight behind the four key questions that were posed to it regarding the exercise of its institutional and control role. The Kythera.News publishes below the full text of the replies, which contains important news and announcements of legal action.
QUESTIONS TO OPPOSITION COUNCILLORS
The law (Law 3852/2010, Law 5056/2023) provides you with specific control tools to protect the public interest. Not using them constitutes institutional tolerance. Ask yourself:
- Convening of an Extraordinary Municipal Council: Will you use your right (gathering 1/3 of the members) to call for the immediate convening of an Extraordinary City Council with the sole purpose of investigating the allegations and setting up an interdepartmental committee to monitor the sewerage project?;
REPLY
Of course we will participate in an Extraordinary City Council but from our experience, from the identification of the majority factions with the complainants so far, we do not expect a decision to be taken on a meaningful investigation - and therefore we will not be the ones to provoke it. They may well, if they wish to do so, call it jointly by Mr. Harhalakis and Mr. Souris. ( Or the chairman of the City Council can call it at any time he wishes.) We note that a City Council with the ability to truly investigate the complainants should be governed by terms of dialogue other than those imposed by the Mayor on Mr. Kapsalis. (We remind you that in the last election in Enchorii, the candidate of the Mayor's choice was given the floor for an hour and a half while he took away the right to speak from our candidate Ms. Tallarou. So what is the point of the Board meeting if, for example, she will not be invited to an equal debate.
Regarding the establishment of an intergroup: technical issues require a technical approach. We remind you that the two opposition parties do not have an elected municipal councillor engineer in their ranks. So what can we discuss in an interparliamentary committee without experts and with what technical vocabulary? Shall we repeat the absurdity of the TPA inter-party committee where the -unrelated to zoning- representatives of the coalition could inevitably only be concerned with how much to build on their lots? After all, following the public revelations by Syralis, we find it logically and morally inconceivable to participate in a body where the ... controllers may have been appointed as controllers.
- Reference to Existing Authorities: Do you, as those exercising institutional control, intend to forward the file with the anonymous complaints of pre-consultation (e-mail 2021) and malpractice to the National Transparency Authority (NTA), the Decentralized Administration of Attica and the competent Prosecutor's Office?;
REPLY
There is no question of intention, we are obliged to transmit them.
Just as we did with the first complaints we received from
κ. Mr. Syralis: 1. The technical report he sent to the Councillors regarding the case of the family of the Chairman of the Domestic Estate and 2. The technical report on the illegal road widening by the Domestic Estate. Indeed, it is worth noting that for both of the above cases, although not all of the allegations have been fully investigated, it is clear that the allegations of Mr. Syrmalis are not “just words in the air” as in the first case, according to the document number FA.268/25 of Piraeus urban planning, which was wall-mounted on the order of the Municipality of Kythera, fines of 69.285,96 euros were established while in the second case, according to the number F101KYΘ58/25 of the Region of Attica proposed fines of 9.288 euros.
- Technical Control of Projects: will you submit an official request to the Technical Chamber of Greece (TEEE) or the SEDE for the conduct of sampling sections in the sewerage network of the Southern Department, in order to determine whether the Municipal Authority is knowingly covering up malworks («shoaling pipes»)?;
REPLY
As the project is underway, our group will evaluate whether the responsible parties (the Technical Services and the supervisors) will order the repair of defects. But since the mayor recently stated that most of the project has been completed, we do not rule out the possibility that the above may try to justify retrospective modifications by showing earlier «implementation studies» (as is repeatedly done in other projects). In this case, and if there are still indications of serious malpractice, we will inform the Public Administration Inspectorate and the services responsible for technical works with an accompanying file of data, photographs, testimonies and drawings so that, if the competent public prosecutor deems it appropriate, he can order an independent opinion from the Technical Inspectorate.
Regarding the «shingling pipelines» (in various parts of the network) our faction has for a year published in the local media and the Board of Directors a complaint of the «quality acceptance» of the project in Agia Pelagia co-signed by the representatives of the two factions of the opposition, adopting the above tactics of the ex post covering up the malworks. We await the final acceptance of the project by the Municipality of Kythera so that before our actions, the mechanism for the execution of public works is given the opportunity to comply with the requirements of art and science. We note, however, that the operation of projects that have not been finally accepted may be provisionally acceptable in economic terms, but not having the project accepted 5 years after the de facto handover for public use raises various questions (e.g., have there been malpractices / is there a financial pending with the contractor / administrative weakness?).
- Control of Environmental Conditions: what actions will you take to immediately check the complaint that the underwater pipeline of the biological plant in Kapsali is cut and that wastewater ends up in the Mylopotamos stream next to the Archaeological Site?;
REPLY
For the ongoing environmental crime of the uncontrolled surface disposal of the River's wastewater over decades, legal proceedings have already been initiated and we are following them. The EP supports the decision of the General Assembly of the River residents. For the complaints you mention and in order to obtain a comprehensive view on the issues we have contacted the complainant to provide us with the information he has. In addition we will seek the official view of the Municipal Communities.
Finally, we congratulate your station for the complete and detailed information provided to our fellow citizens and through it we ask for their assistance in collecting information in cases of infection that have come to the attention of someone.
