New evidence about the unpleasant actions of ND executives who secured contracts from the public sector worth millions of euros are coming to light, adding important aspects to the actions of the ruling party's «Patsis», the downward spiral of political life and the misappropriation of public money.
The journalist Thanasis Koukakis with a report in newsbomb, sheds light on the cases of Andreas Koutoupis and Akis Rodakos, who in the last three years secured through various companies of their interests, almost 420 contracts worth about 5.5 million euros from the State through hundreds of direct awards and competitive tendering procedures.
Ο Andreas Koutoupis, is Coordinator of the Strategic Planning and Communication Secretariat of the South-Western Party. He is also the founder and major shareholder of the audit firm KnR Governance, Risk, Compliance & Internal Audit Services.
In fact, New Democracy, as stated in the article, rushed to eliminate the traces of Andreas Koutoupis, as Thanasis Koukakis notes «In the interim time that we were waiting for Mr Koutoupis» answers, we found that the section dedicated to him, which referred to his capacity as coordinator of the Strategic Planning and Communication Secretariat of New Democracy, was removed from the New Democracy website. He told us that this was a coincidence'.
Ο Akis Rodakos, does not hold an official position in New Democracy, but is a friend of Adonis Georgiades, something that the Minister of Development himself mentions in his social media.
He is a minority shareholder of KnR and a partner of Koutoupis, «who initially took advantage of his partner's contacts and allegedly developed a network of close contacts with members of the ruling party. It is believed that these acquaintances led KnR, and Mr. Rodakos himself individually, to sweep the tenders for various projects,» the report said.
Business with the public sector
According to the report, a total of 79 public contracts with KnR were posted in 2019 in the Central Electronic Register of Public Procurement «Prometheus» for a total amount of 651,568 euros.
In 2020, the number of public sector contracts with KnR increased by 35% to a total of 106 with a total value of EUR 1.48 million.
In 2021, a total of 96 contracts were posted in «Prometheus» for a total amount of 997,656 euros, while in 2022 the number of public contracts with KnR reached 21 and their amount was 506,604 euros. That is, in total, between 2019 and 2022 KnR Governance, Risk, Compliance & Internal Audit Services secured 302 contracts from the public sector amounting to 3.6 million euros!
At the same time, according to data from the Central Electronic Register of Public Procurement «Prometheus», the individual business of Akis Rodakos has individually secured from 2019 to date more than 30 contracts from the State worth more than 500,000 euros.
Andreas Kooutoupis in his response to the report says, among other things, that «our company has always cooperated with the State regardless of governments. All the contracts we have concluded with the State are all legal and audited by the competent bodies. And you will have already seen that the company's turnover is decreasing as a consequence of the reckless action of opportunistic companies that I mentioned above - a glance at the DIAYGEIA and KIMDES will convince you of this».
The wife's company
According to the report by Thanasis Koukakis, on 28 December 2021, almost a month after the start of the audit of the SDEOE in KnR, Spark Consultants Business Consultants Sole Proprietorship was founded.
The company was founded by private employee Paraskevi Kaldiri, who from 11 November 2020 until 31 December 2021 worked as an office employee at KnR. She is the wife of Akis Rodakos, deputy chairman of KnR.
«Spark Business Consultants Sole Proprietorship, which made its first recruitment on 24 January 2022 (currently employing 4 staff) found itself between 4 February 2022 and 29 December 2022 having secured 81 contracts with public bodies in almost 46 weeks. The amount of Spark Consultants Business Consultants Sole Proprietorship IKE's posted contracts in the Central Electronic Public Procurement Register «Procurement» totals 1.32 million euros!», the report said.
The Polakis revelation
It should be noted that in July 2020, SYRIZA MP Pavlos Polakis denounced the tendering procedures and direct awards by which the company of Koutoupis and Rodakos secured fat contracts from hospitals for projects mainly for internal audit, but also for services related to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). After a long delay, in November 2021, following a prosecutor's order, an audit was launched by the State Revenue Service, which is still pending.
