Court of Audit

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis will chair a cabinet meeting via teleconferencing on Wednesday, to review developments on the coronavirus pandemic and discuss pending draft bills of several ministries.

Ioannis Sarmas, 62, until now vice president at the supreme financial court of Greece, has been chosen as the new head of the Court of Audit for the next four years.
The decision was announced during a meeting of the cabinet on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Altana Kokkovou, Ioannis Maginas, Georgios Kontos, Aspasia Mayiakou and Avrokomi Thoua were appointed Supreme Court vice presidents.

Despite its major defeat in the 26 May elections, SYRIZA has not abandoned its habit of playing games with institutions, nor has it renounced the machinations in which it has engaged over the last four years.

Judges in Greek administrative courts will hold a general meeting on December 14 to discuss various planned changes in their sector as part of the government's constitutional revision.

The reconstruction of the main arch of the 19th-century Plaka Bridge in Tzoumerka, northwestern Greece, which collapsed in February 2015 due to flooding, will be delayed by one year. The Court of Audit did not approve the contractor assigned to the project and the file was returned to the competent ministry. Restoration work on the remaining parts of the bridge has been completed.

Local government officials called on Thursday for Interior Minister Panos Skourletis to resign after Kathimerini revealed that the Court of Audit has deemed unconstitutional a decision to keep contract workers in their jobs at municipalities, as well as efforts to give them permanent positions.

Deutsche Invest Equity Partners (DIEP), an investment group Ivan Savvidis, the owner of football club PAOK Thessaloniki, is a part of has bought out the Thessaloniki port (OLTH) for a price of 231.9 million euros. The development signals a new era in the city’s port, affecting the economic growth of northern Greece and the country as a whole.

At a time when the most pressing demands are to create conditions for economic growth and to attract investment to the country, the government - beholden to its ideological hang-ups - continues to expend all its effort and ingenuity on how it will increase its political clientele by making use of the state.

Lamda Development, the winning bidder for the development of the old Athens airport plot at Elliniko, came out with a firm response to Productive Reconstruction and Environment Minister Panayiotis Lafazanis?s claims of a ?scandalous? acquisition, saying they are unfounded and that his attitude discourages much-needed foreign investment.

The sixth section of the Court of Audit on Wednesday upheld an earlier ruling that Panathinaikos soccer club should not receive 7 million euros from the Attica Regional Authority to improve its stadium at Alexandras Avenue in central Athens.

The club wants to make a number of improvements to the stadium, including increasing its seating capacity to 20,000 and creating parking spaces.