The Mayor responds with a full frontal attack in the faction «Free Kythera», accusing it of «localism» and hostility to southern projects. It calls the allegations about the sewerage project «monstrous lies», defends the planning and legality of the project, and provides detailed evidence to refute, as it says, their arguments one by one.
Here is the Mayor's announcement:
The masks are off!
The «FREE CYTHERS» are hostile to any project that is done in the southern part of the island!
The «FREE CYTHERS» maintain the localism that has so damaged our country!
With its latest statement, the «Free Citizens» party has now revealed its true face. Whatever is done in the southern part of Kythera, it is hostile and fights it. For this faction, Kythera is limited to 2-3 Municipal Communities alone. Even in these of course, when we inaugurate projects (e.g. River Stadium) it is defiantly absent because every project that is completed demolishes one of their narratives.
Their LIES about the South Department WWTP project are monstrous. I answer one by one in detail:
FALSE 1ο: «The rapid promotion, without social demand, of a huge project that appeared «out of nowhere» (it was not in any planning, not even in the pre-election programmes)».
REPLY: The head of this particular faction did not permanently reside in Kythera before 2023. He was therefore not present during the 2019 election period. So either he has incorrect information, or he's just lying. Because he should know that the sewerage networks in the southern part of Kythera were a long-standing demand of all local communities and were the first topic of discussion at the election meetings in Livadi, Karvounades, Kalamos and Milopotamos already in 2014 (there are plenty of relevant posts and videos). The project is planned in Master Wastewater Management Plan that our Municipality has had for years! It has been the subject of intense public debate during the 2019 elections with our Municipal Authority to strongly support the view that the existing WWTP in Kapsali is mandatory to be upgraded and utilized as it is built to treat the sewage of 7.000 inhabitants and therefore the construction of new networks throughout the southern part was a foregone conclusion.
LIES 2ο: «The questioning of the feasibility of accumulating all the waste water in Kapsali, instead of disposing of it in more WWTPs (even for Mylopotamos) was answered with the unstable argument that the European Directive, which calls for exactly the opposite, is no longer in force».
REPLY: The Municipal Authority preferred the use of the existing unit in Kapsali to the proposal for the construction of local networks and several different units in each settlement. If we had opted for this proposal a) no project would have been financed because it would have been a highly fragmented intervention, b) even if it had been financed, the plants could not have been supervised, maintained and operated adequately by the Municipality, because it is one thing to supervise a WWTP that receives the waste water of 20 settlements and another (staff, costs, procedures) to supervise 5 or 10 different plants. It is a matter of common sense. When you have a WWTP that has been sized and constructed to receive wastewater from 7,000 residents, you are obliged to upgrade it and connect as many settlements as possible.
LIES 3ο: Budget realism - discount.
REPLY: These issues AUDITED by the Court of Auditors, the Ministry of Environment and the Recovery Fund itself which funds 70 other similar projects in the rest of Greece. The realism of the budget has been answered before, the comparisons made are unfounded, each project is separate and distinct, as are local particularities and conditions. Active INTERNATIONAL ELECTRONIC COMPETITION, participated 3 companies (YDROA GRUP EU, HOROTECHNIKI ATE, UNOSI AKTOR ATE-GOLIOPOULOS ATE), 2 of them appealed to the EADISY with repeated appeals and finally the whole procedure, studies, invoices, budget, etc. were subjected to the scrutiny of the body responsible for checking legality, which is the Court of Auditors. The challenge to the pre-contractual control exercised by El. Co., the Ministry of Environment and the Recovery Fund in this project, by this party, is extremely worrying and extremely undemocratic.. The State has institutions, Mr.Sophie, which you especially, because of your work, ought to know and above all respect. Alas, if everyone starts to question the judgments of the courts by spreading their own personal opinions as being more true than the judgments! Is this the society envisioned by the authors of the text, a society that challenges the institutions?; The study is signed by 3 design engineers, has been checked in its entirety by all the competent authorities and the project is being executed according to its design.
PSYDOS 4ο: «The supervision of the project is carried out by engineers indicated by the contractor and not, as would be expected, by the designer of the project (an engineer of national scope and unsurpassed experience who resides on the island)».
REPLY: The supervision of the project is twofold. It is the only project in Kythera that has double supervision: a) a three-member supervision team consisting of a Civil Engineer and 2 Mechanical Engineers (2 from the Municipality and 1 from the Region) and b) an Independent Technical Consultant who emerged from an electronic tender! Competition in which any engineer or group of engineers from all over Greece had the opportunity to participate, even «engineers of national scope and unsurpassed experience»! So why didn't these people/this person participate?;
PSYDOS 5ο: «Does the Municipality of Kythera receive, systematically and repeatedly, very expensive specialized studies which the Technical Services do not have the technical competence to prepare and then fraudulently excludes the designers (in this case Mr.G. Syralis) from supervision in order for the contractors to be able to modify the scope at will, at the expense of the quality of the execution of the projects?’.
REPLY: Tempest in a skull! Municipalities have every right to carry out studies either by their own services, or through the Region, or through the Municipal Networks, or through a Programme Contract with any local government body of Law 4674/20, or with private individuals.. In order for any private engineer to work with the State, he or she must meet certain conditions: he or she must have up-to-date information, be insured, etc. As regards the amendments to studies, I have already replied: the studies are modified during the execution phase of the works in accordance with the provisions of Law 4412/16. RISs are drawn up, changes are made, the oversight team decides whether to incur contingency and accounting costs, etc. because so executed public works and these are provided for in the Law. When and if this particular faction takes over the governance of the country, let them change the laws...
I look forward to seeing the views of this faction in a short time when the studies for the WWTP North Department, which are being prepared through the Programmatic Agreement of our Municipality with the Attica Islands Network, which this faction wants to abolish, will be presented. It will be very interesting...
Finally, I will not comment on the references to «mafia tactics» and «deceit». This is because the legal representative of the combination (who bears the absolute legal responsibility) will be called upon to defend and prove them before the Justice. In public life and discourse, slander is not and will never be tolerated.
