Appeals delay major public projects

Appeals by residents or local government bodies (or both), disputes between companies, and service delays in the delivery of required spaces for the establishment of construction sites – e.g. due to the need for expropriations – are just a few examples of the issues that continue to derail the timetables of most of the country’s major projects.

According to the latest report by the Court of Auditors, which was published last March and studied 1,162 public projects of 24 entities, between January 1, 2017 and the end of March 2021, it emerged that on average public projects need 2.5 times more time to complete compared to the conventional execution time.

Extensions were given to two thirds of all the projects checked. The projects were commissioned by agencies such as the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport, Erga OSE, Ktiriakes Ypodomes, Egnatia Odos, municipalities and large regions such as Attica, Thessaly and the Peloponnese. It is therefore obvious that the problem of the timely implementation of projects is universal and does not depend on the respective contracting authority.

Of course, the above is not a Greek peculiarity. On the contrary, studies abroad have led to similar conclusions. However, in Greece the delays are long, not only at the stage of the implementation of a project, but also during the process of planning and tendering it. The report of the Court of Auditors records most of the problems, such as the fact that in some projects the required studies had not been carried out before their tender. In other cases, there is faulty supervision of the progress of the projects or the extensions granted do not have sufficient justification, beyond a stereotypical explanation.

For example, the daily traffic jam at the exit of the Attiki Odos highway to the Athens-Thessaloniki national highway at Metamorfosi would be resolved with the extension of neighboring Kymis Avenue to the national highway. This 350-million-euro project was announced as a state project two years ago and today it has the TERNA-Aktor-Intrakat consortium as its contractor; however, its start date is still unknown. Apparently it is not expected to begin for several months yet: The local Municipality of Iraklio has appealed to the Council of State for changes to the road’s course.