Charalakis impressed by KEP, continuing his confrontation with Magoulas

The renovated KEP Kythira was visited today by the Mayor of Kythira, Efstratios Charhalakis. The KEP Kythira moved to the Municipal Hall of Potamos in November 2022. After his visit, the mayor made an extensive statement in a post, expressing his admiration for the new space. He then criticized the leader of the main opposition, municipal councilor Nikos Magoulas, for his criticism of the project and responded in detail to all the issues raised by the opposition during the last Municipal Council meeting. He defended the procedures for creating the new KEP, citing complete transparency. In his post, he attached relevant expense receipts for the creation of the KEP. It should be noted that at the last meeting of the Municipal Council, Mr. Magoulas raised issues regarding the Mayor's assignments to his political allies, which were issued after the completion of the KEP project. Read the Mayor of Kythira's statement in detail:

Our new KEP!

Today I visited our new KEP in Potamos! It is truly impressive! It is a jewel for the whole island! With the Permanent Exhibition of the Operational Model of the Antikythera Mechanism housed in the same space, Potamos will be a magnet for thousands of visitors for yet another reason.

At the recent meeting of the Board of Directors, the leader of the minority, Mr. Nikos Magoulas, made various unfounded accusations about the work of the new KEP. Of course, if Mr. Magoulas had attended all the meetings of the Economic Committee, he might have had fewer questions and misled public opinion less. However, I understand that, 12 months before the municipal elections, some people are looking for a political lifeline and a political narrative.

So let's see what the TRUTH is:

1. When the National Bank abandoned the property in 2019, the ground floor space was handed over to our municipality in a state of complete abandonment. Outdated electrical installations that had never been maintained, heavy iron structures that the Bank had installed (e.g., for the safe and the ATM) but had not bothered to remove, and a complete lack of building maintenance. There are many photographs and, of course, many testimonies about exactly how the National Bank of Greece left the space. The municipal authority had to incur all the necessary expenses to restore the space and utilize it for the benefit of the municipality and its citizens.

2. With decision no. 136/2021 of the Economic Committee (ADA: ΨΑΜΤΩΛΨ-ΜΟΔ), in which Mr. Magoulas did NOT participate, the terms of the tender for the project «Exhibition space for the Antikythera Mechanism,» which our Municipal Authority included in the LEADER program with an amount of €44,320 including VAT (net amount €35,741). The project was put out to tender in accordance with the procedures of Law 4412/2016 and was implemented in an exemplary manner by the contractor TETRAGON. Based on the study and the decision to include it in LEADER, this amount includes the following (indicatively): study of documentation and organization of exhibition material, layout design, construction, supply, and installation of the multipurpose space's contents (e.g., graphic design, scenographic materials, lighting and audiovisual media, prints, banners, brochures, signs, etc.), plasterboard for separating the exhibition from the new KEP and accompanying construction work, the configuration of the WC for people with disabilities, transport and installations, etc.

3. Our municipality then proceeded with studies for the renovation of the remaining ground floor spaces of the Potamos Municipal Hall, in order to transfer and operate the new KEP there: 2 toilets (in addition to the disabled toilet, kitchen, storage room, renovations, complete new electrical installations, false ceilings, painting, special industrial flooring, photocells, video intercom, etc. For this reason, two separate assignments were made (the relevant codes were included in the 2022 Budget, which was also voted for by Mr. Magoulas and his party) as follows: €14,970 for new electrical installations (15 items in total) and €23,975.79 for construction work (27 items in total). The studies were prepared by the Municipality's Technical Service, the procedures of Article 118 of Law 4412 were followed, and everything is posted on Diafgeia and ESHIDIS. Everything is posted, no shadows!

4. AFTER the completion of the renovation work, which was carried out using the municipality's own funds, the Ministry of Digital Governance issued a call for funding for the country's municipalities for the renovation of all KEPs! However, our municipality had already renovated the space at its own expense. So, we accepted the corresponding funding and are working with the relevant ministry to have it offset against the expenses we have already incurred. Therefore, there is no connection between the funds we are entitled to from the Ministry of Digital Governance and the assignments we have already completed for
   the new KEP.

5. Furthermore, the law NOWHERE states that «spouses of municipal council candidates who have not been elected» are prohibited from dealing with municipalities! This is yet another of the countless figments of Mr. Magoulas' imagination that we have become accustomed to hearing over the last three years. On the contrary, Law 3852/2010, Article 14, clearly states that mayors, municipal councilors, and community councilors cannot be elected (ineligibility) when they (and not their relatives!) are linked to the relevant municipality or its legal entities by a supply, works or service contract worth more than €5,000 per year. And of course, this applies to ELECTED municipal authorities and NOT to candidates in general who were not elected! In any case, the selection of contractors for direct awards is the exclusive responsibility of the contracting authority and not of the head of a municipal faction. If we accept Mr. Magoulas's view, then dozens of professionals, businesspeople, and suppliers who are related to our fellow citizens who were candidates in the elections and were not elected are automatically excluded from any cooperation with the Municipality! This makes no sense whatsoever!

6. Finally, given that in cases of simple assignment, the formal procedure for signing the relevant agreement is only probative, while the actual conclusion of the contract is considered to have taken place upon notification of the assignment to the economic operator in question, it should be noted that any time inconsistencies that may arise and which may be due to various reasons, such as service overload, reduced staff, untimely collection of necessary supporting documents, etc., cannot affect the legality of the procedure, provided that the other substantive requirements of Law 4412/2016 are met.

Visit our new KEP!
It's worth it!