- On January 25, 2024, the Ministry of Interior approved a credit commitment of 1,612,000 euros, and the next day, January 25, 2024, the company “SINGULARLOGIC S.A.” was invited to take on the job.
- What the contract entails: Data Journalists shed light on the contract’s fine print.
- The big question: Why hasn’t the public prosecutor summoned the company to explain “the security of the digital environment it has created”?
- Why did the company’s founder, Andreas Dremiotis, a key supporter and “promoter” of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, recently describe the Data Protection Authority, which launched an investigation into the leak, as “regressive”?
- The acquisition of Singular Logic by Space Hellas, which is owned by the family of Spyros Manolopoulos, who is reported to have close ties with the Mitsotakis family for decades.
- In recent years, Singular Logic has signed 712 contracts with the government, and Space Hellas 1,373, according to entries in the National Electronic Public Procurement System.
By Aris Chatzigeorgiou
In the spotlight of responsibility for the scandal of leaking the personal data of thousands of Greek voters abroad, the powerful company Singular Logic, the permanent election manager in Greece for the last 40 years, naturally comes into play.
The company, originally founded as DELTA by engineer Andreas Dremiotis, a key supporter and “promoter” in recent years of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, is the one that took over last January through summary procedures and direct assignment “the provision of software development services for the implementation of postal voting and support of the electoral process”.
On January 25, 2024, the Ministry of Interior approved a credit commitment of 1,612,000 euros “for the payment of equal expenses against the credit of the budget expenses of the Ministry of Interior Special Body 1007 206, ALE 2420903001, for the fiscal year 2024, to cover the expenses for the provision of software development services for the implementation of absentee voting and support of the electoral process”.
On the following day, January 26, 2024, the Administrative Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior issued a decision inviting the company under the name “SINGULARLOGIC S.A.” to “submit a financial offer through the National Electronic Public Procurement System (Ref. No. 332253) for the provision of software development services – expansion of the electronic portal for candidate registration in elections for the implementation of postal voting and support of the electoral process”.
Έγγραφο PDF ΕΔΩ
The decision notes that this is a direct assignment that “exceptionally exceeds the threshold of 30,000 euros, based on legislation related to electoral expenditure”. It is recalled that direct assignment is the method by which the collection and transmission of election results are permanently entrusted to Singular Logic. In fact, there have been cases in the not-too-distant past where governments have justified this direct assignment on the grounds that elections were called early, which did not allow for a tender process to select a contractor. The paradox, however, is that the same was true for elections announced at the end of a government’s term, not because the prime minister decided to call early elections.
The Specifications
The decision of the Ministry of the Interior included an annex with the functional specifications of the deliverables, emphasizing that the invitation was addressed to an economic entity (Singular Logic) and that “proposals from economic entities that were not invited to submit a bid will not be considered”. It then described the basic subsystems to be developed, which included the following sections:
- Postal Voting Applications (the deliverables emphasize that the Postal Voting Application Submission System by Voters should be ready by 09/02/2024, i.e., two weeks after the assignment)
- Postal Voting Management
- Extension and adaptation of the electronic subsystems for candidate registration in elections to support Postal Voting
- Support Portal for Postal Voting for people with disabilities
- Candidate Portal for European Elections
- Election Store Registry Subsystem
- Adaptation of the electronic subsystems for candidate registration in elections to support the Clearance of Electoral Registers
- Extension of Electoral Registers Subsystem
- System Operator Training (20 hours via teletraining)
- User Manuals – Code
During the development of the subsystems, several deliverables are distinguished, such as:
- Creating an application for employees of the Ministry of Interior to search for information on voters in the Basic and Special Registers, as well as the applications they have submitted to the Special Register Application subsystems.
- Extension of necessary subsystems to support: Export of Excel files with the necessary information for the production of election material · Distribution of Elections – Postal Voting Electoral Sections to transportation companies · Export of necessary voter data (voter information and delivery address of election material) to Excel files to be used by transport companies for delivery of election material. · Entering the code of the transport company into the electronic portal for candidate registration in elections for tracking the delivery of election material per voter (provided by the transport companies) · Sending informational e-mail messages to each voter to notify them of the delivery of voting materials pertaining to them, as well as the website of the transportation company and the code for tracking the delivery process.
In this detailed and multi-page decision on direct assignment and its specifications, there is no mention of Personal Data Protection issues or GDPR. Obviously, this does not mean that access to the valuable data collected could be uncontrolled and only allowed to authorized individuals. Moreover, those who manage such databases are aware that, under normal circumstances, every data processing action, even a simple printout, is logged, leaving traces of who performed it
The registration of Greeks living abroad to vote in the upcoming European elections began in mid-February through the electronic address epistoliki.ypes.gov.gr. During the registration process, individuals can authenticate themselves through taxisnet as well as with passport details, while the platform also requests an email address to receive confirmation messages regarding their registration. It is understood that through this process, the Ministry of Interior may create a new database unrelated to the Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) database.
Why didn’t the prosecutor summon them?
It’s particularly striking that the prominent name of Singular Logic (as well as the company Space Hellas, which acquired it in 2021) has not been mentioned so far in the reports and information about the judicial investigation ordered by the head of the Court of First Instance in early March. The preliminary criminal investigation will focus on crimes such as violation of personal data legislation and breach of confidentiality agreements. On this basis, Singular Logic will have to provide clarifications regarding the security measures of the digital environment it has created.
A few hours before the order for the judicial investigation, the Hellenic Data Protection Authority (HDPA) had drawn attention to the issue with a brief announcement: “In response to questions raised by the mass media regarding the alleged sending of unsolicited electronic communications by a Member of the European Parliament to Greeks living abroad in the run-up to the European elections, the Authority announces that, following the submission of a large number of relevant complaints, it has promptly opened an investigation into the matter.
The article before getting the job
It is of particular interest that Andreas Drimiotis, IT guru, a supporter of the Mitsotakis government, and regular columnist for the newspaper Kathimerini, has recently described the IPC Protection Authority as “regressive”.
In fact, his most recent lengthy article appeared on 14/1/2024, just before Singular Logic received the direct award, and is entitled “How we shoot ourselves in the foot…and then we can’t run away”. Mr. Drimiotis begins a narrative by saying that the HDPA is the most classic application of the above proverb, as it is the Authority that “out of overzealousness sees everything and everywhere as “personal data”.
The response and the counter-response
Nevertheless, the HDPA responded to Mr. Drimiotis’ article, and its response was published in “Sunday’s Kathimerini” on January 21, 2024. In his note, Mr. Drimiotis replied on January 28, also leaving a subtle jab at the newspaper that hosts him:
In the issue of “Sunday’s Kathimerini” of January 21, 2024, a letter-response of the Data Protection Authority was published in response to my article published on January 14, 2024, entitled “How we shoot ourselves in the foot…”. In the DPA’s letter, I replied with my own views, which I immediately sent to the newspaper with the request that both texts be published together. For its own reasons, the newspaper published the Authority’s response in the print edition and my response in the electronic edition. In order to restore the symmetry of information, my present text contains my response, supplemented with additional details”.
The extended response begins as follows I was absolutely certain that the DPA would respond to my article. It always does. Usually, their texts are filled with legal arguments that rarely address the substance… In the meantime, however, Singular Logic had gone ahead and implemented the procurement for the absentee ballot.
Defense Systems and Family Relationships
As mentioned above, Singular Logic was acquired by another major government contractor, Space Hellas, which is heavily involved in defense systems. Space Hellas is owned by the family of Spyros Manolopoulos, who has reportedly had very close ties to the Mitsotakis family for decades. According to the records of the Hellenic Electronic Public Procurement System, Singular Logic has signed 712 contracts with the government in recent years, while Space Hellas has signed 1,373.
The original company Delta Informatics was founded in 1984 by Andreas Drimiotis together with the then Piraeus Bank and the Doxiadis Group. It evolved into Delta Singular, which was acquired by Alpha Bank in 2005 and later became part of Andreas Vgenopoulos’ MIG Group. Mr. Drimiotis himself often speaks of his experience in transmitting election results in 40 different elections, starting with the 1981 elections that brought Andreas Papandreou’s PASOK to power.
Two weeks before Tempi
As for the postal vote, it was announced by Kyriakos Mitsotakis at an event celebrating the achievements of gov.gr on February 14, 2023, two weeks before Tempi, with the following words: “I discussed with the Prime Minister of Estonia, who told me that they have elections at the beginning of March. In Estonia, half – I emphasize half – of the citizens vote electronically. With absolutely safe and secure systems. I find it inconceivable that this could not or should not be done in our country, at least for those who live outside Greece, so that all those who are registered to vote can vote from abroad.
It is obvious that Andreas Drimiotis was a key supporter of the idea, as he writes in an article about the European Elections published on March 17, 2024, even after the scandal with the leak of personal data had already erupted:
“I am really proud because with an article of mine in this column (“European Elections 2024: a unique opportunity” – 23/7/2023) I highlighted the opportunity and even proposed the process of implementing postal voting in the European elections to draw useful conclusions for its universal application. On November 30, 2023, the government announced its intention to “introduce postal voting in the European elections”.
Condemning the opposition
This is indeed the most important turning point in the process. It is a disgrace to our political system that there was not complete unanimity on this issue. All these staunch democrats, who claim to be defenders of citizens’ rights, voted against the measure that would allow Greeks both abroad and domestically to exercise their right to vote on June 9 from wherever they are, without the need to travel.
At this point, I would like to express my particular disappointment because both SYRIZA and PASOK voted against postal voting in the European elections under the pretext that the government proposed to introduce postal voting for national elections as well. They could have, if they wanted, voted against postal voting only for national elections. However, their attitude shows that they were probably looking for excuses.
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