Nikos Filis on the Cisco scandal: The prime minister must take a stand

In a press release issued following the relevant question submitted to the Parliament On Monday, March 22, the former Minister of Education and Member of Parliament for SYRIZA – P.S., Nikos Filis, calls on the prime minister to take a stand and on the competent authorities to intervene with regard to the Cisco scandal.

Mr. Filis refers to the signing of contracts, which was orchestrated as a «miracle of efficiency,» resulting in «the exploitation by the same company of metadata on more than 1.2 million students and teachers,» instead of €1.9 million from the state to Cisco.

A contract whereby, for a whole year, the Minister of Education, Niki Kerameos «played hide-and-seek,» arguing that «this is a donation,» and that it raises «a major ethical and political issue» due to the widespread involvement of government officials.

Read the entire announcement here:

The scandal involving the government and the Minister of Education misleading Parliament for 12 months about the supposedly «free» awarding of the e-learning contract to CISCO and the equally huge scandal involving the same company's exploitation of metadata (metadata) of more than 1.2 million students and teachers, was revealed yesterday, ahead of the debate in Parliament on a topical question I had submitted. But of course, also in view of the start of disbursement of funds to the company, something that, due to transparency, could not be kept secret indefinitely.

Act 109/2021 of the Court of Auditors, which was made public with a compilation of contracts, reveals the scheme. As the documents show, on the same day (28/2/2021) that the director of the political office (!) of the Minister of Digital Governance, Mr. Pierrakakis, sent a letter with ministerial orders to the Information Society, the contracting companies pointed out the same needs for the implementation of distance learning in a similar document.

With this exceptional coordination—a miracle of efficiency!—everyone agreed that the American company Cisco was the preferred company for conducting distance learning, rather than the Chinese company Huawei.

In this way, Cisco, which according to the Minister of Education «provided free distance learning,» will receive €1.9 million from the Greek government for 154,000 licenses! The amount will be paid as part of the «SYZEFXIS II» project, as a subcontract, with the intervention of the contracting companies.

Let me remind you what they have been saying for a year: «This is a donation. The Greek government has not spent a single euro» (N. Kerameos, on SKAI, 12.11.2020) or «all this fuss about the contract... It is an acceptance of a donation without any obligations on the part of the State... Greek taxpayers are not spending a single euro» (N. Kerameos in Parliament, 27.11.2020). To the amount of €1.9 million must be added the incalculable profit that the company will make from exploiting the metadata of millions of citizens, a «gift» from the Minister of Education according to the contract she signed on March 13, 2020, which she has since refused to submit to Parliament.

This alone would be enough (SYRIZA has repeatedly denounced it and the Data Protection Authority is investigating it) for the Minister of Education to be unable to remain in her position for even an hour. However, following the involvement of Pierrakakis and other government officials, it appears that we are dealing with an organized plan and generalized political responsibility, for which the prime minister must now respond.

It is inconceivable that, in the midst of a pandemic, the government continues to hand out jobs, waste public money, and sell off the value of public digital infrastructure. This is a major issue of ethics and political order, and also a matter of defending democracy, since even the personal data of minors is being transferred.

Since yesterday, when it became clear that Ms. Kerameos had been playing «hide and seek» with the contract for a year, the case has not been closed; it has only just begun. To be continued.
(Statement by Nikos Filis from the discussion between the SYRIZA Education Sector Head and Nikos Xydakis on Kokkino a short while ago)