The Minister of Interior Yannis Michelakis was forced to withdraw a controversial regulation which provided indemnity for public officials handling contract projects, at the pressure of PASOK, despite having been approved by his Deputy Leonidas Grigorakos.
PASOK’s press spokesman Odysseas Konstantinopoulos explained that his party was not satisfied by the explanations provided by the Interior Minister and as such, the regulation will be revised. It should be noted that when the controversial article was discussed in Parliament on Thursday, the 27th of February, PASOK’s parliamentary representative Koukoulopoulos did not express any objections.
According to the controversial article, in cases of contracted projects where the end result differs to what was agreed, but is related to – and accepted by – the service of the contracting authority’s body, then the public officials will not face any criminal charges. The regulation was intended for projects where there is not enough time or available funds in order to create a new contract for an ongoing project.
The opposition fiercely objected to the regulation, claiming that it was being introduced ahead of local elections in a cover-up attempt, with Mr. Grigorakos responding that he would have withdrawn it himself, had he realized it would affect the elections.
