STASY: A Party with Garlands, Lights and Direct Awards

Last September, STASY admitted that by 2024, there will be only 9 ramps for wheelchair users in 24 stations on Metro Line 1. At the end of October, chaos erupted at Syntagma station when extreme and suffocating overcrowding occurred in the morning due to a “technical fault in two consecutive trains”. In early November, following a report of cracks in the rails, the president of the STASY union of station managers stressed that “the crisis has also significantly affected the metro. There is a lack of staff, which means a lack of maintenance, a lack of rolling stock, and so on, all of which are increasingly causing problems.

These recent developments add to a series of earlier incidents that raise legitimate concerns. However, STASY already seems to be in a festive Christmas mode.

The series of recent direct orders raises questions about the usefulness of the decisions, given the costs involved.

1. On November 26, STASY announced an order for “the procurement of decorative items for the Christmas decorations of its network for 2024”. The final value of the contract is €27,552 including VAT and it is signed by the CEO, Athanasios Kottaras. This was preceded by a tender on November 21 for the procurement of “decorative items for the Christmas decorations of the STASY network for 2024”. The contractor is the company Eurolamp S.A.
2. The next day, on November 27, STASY published a “tender for the services of assembly, disassembly and transport of the festive decorations of the STASY network to a warehouse”. The recipient is a company from Volos (Kalampokas Konstantinos and Co. Ltd.). The estimated cost of the project is €18,100 including VAT. The project description includes, among others, “the installation of a Christmas tree with lights, 1.40m high” at Syntagma, “the installation of a floor-standing illuminated 3D ship, 350cmx400cm” at Piraeus, and “the installation of a decorative comet garland at the Kifisia terminal (HSAP)”.
3. On the same day (November 27, 2024), STASY published another “tender”, specifically “for the provision of entertainment services for passengers during the Christmas festivities”. The tender concerns the company “Mathainontas MON. IKE” from Anavyssos, with a value of €6,200 including VAT: “STASY invites you to submit a tender for entertainment services for passengers as part of the Christmas festivities that will take place on the STASY network. There is no detailed project description in this case. This was preceded by a decision on 21 November to approve a budget allocation of 5,000 euros plus 1,200 euros VAT, for a total of 6,200 euros, to be charged to the STASY budget for promotion and advertising (Christmas events on the STASY network)”. The total cost of these three “Christmas” decisions related to decorations on the network already amounts to €51,852, and there is still time for more related decisions. The cost is expected to increase significantly when decisions are made for the annual planned STASY celebration. It should be noted that the amount of €5,200 has already been approved as promotion and advertising expenses for the annual “Corporate Tribute to STASY” (by a decision of November 26). On December 2, a decision was also made to spend €6,800 excluding VAT (€8,432 including VAT) “for the purchase of toys for the children of STASY employees”. As mentioned above, this includes 1,000 “pieces” of wireless speakers valued at €4,700 (excluding VAT) and 1,000 waterproof cell phone cases valued at €2,100 (excluding VAT). Taking into account the latest costs directly or indirectly related to the holiday season, the total expenditure amounts to €65,484, not including the cost of the annual STASY celebration.

2024: Over 550,000 euros for public relations, catering, Easter candles, media relations and… charms

In total, from the beginning of 2024 until the end of November, STASY had 9,128 posts on the transparency platform “Diavgeia”, of which 91 decisions were related to public relations (promotion, advertising, media training, photographic coverage, festive expenses such as New Year’s cakes, Easter candles, administrative expenses, etc.). The cost of these assignments reached 567,440 euros in the first 11 months.

Among other expenses:

• In April 2024, €14,850 was spent on creative toys for the children of STASY employees.
• In February, €29,400 for “graphic services and creative design.
• In October, €18,600 for “design and implementation of a media training program to manage relations with the media.
• In May, €13,392 for Easter candles.
• In November, €7,000 for “STASY’s participation in a campaign”.
• In May, €18,600 for “Participation in an event for the recognition and promotion of STASY”.
• In August, €11,005 for “Catering at the 20th anniversary of the tram”.
• In January, €10,285 for the annual New Year’s cake event.
• In April, €10,800 for Easter candles.
• In January, €9,625 for “2024 charms for staff”.
• In March, €6,076 for “decorative stickers”.
• In October, €24,775 for “social media malicious group management services”.
• In January, €4,520 for “Vasilopita for all employees”.
• In January, €2,090 for “Christmas treats”.

In May, €4,200 for “Easter treats”.

STASY’s total direct allocation for 2024 is €5.7 million

 

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Direct orders skyrocket since 2022

The total annual contracts for STASY, covering the total volume of the company’s projects listed in KIMDIS (such as security, traffic boards, material replacement), have soared since 2022.

Specifically, the costs are as follows:

2020: €1.5 million

2021: €687,000

2022: €8.1 million

2023: €3.6 million

2024 (through October 31): €5.7 million

What is STASY?

The “Urban Rail Transport Single-Member SA (STASY S.A.)” is a public company responsible for the development and operation of the fixed-rail transport systems in Athens, including the Attiko Metro, the Electric Railway (HSAP) and the tramway in the Athens Metropolitan Area.

It was established in 2011 following the renaming of Attiko Metro, which merged the companies TRAM S.A. and the Electric Railway of Athens-Piraeus (HSAP S.A.). STASY is a public transport company and a subsidiary of the OASA group.

On November 8, the newspaper “Ta Nea” reported on “serious problems on a total of 32 kilometers of railway tracks,” with the management of STASY implementing preventive speed restrictions (40-60 km/h) on a significant part of the network.

The report went on to say that “this has led to additional delays in metro services, as there is already a shortage of trains. The call for bids for track replacement (issued on October 30) revealed that significant defects and damage were identified three years ago and have yet to be repaired. According to the results of inspections carried out three years ago, about 5.5 kilometers of track require immediate replacement, while another 22 kilometers were found to have measurable damage. The project now tendered by STASY will replace tracks on a total of 32 kilometers of the network, 21,582 meters on Line 2 and 10,494 meters on Line 3.”

In response to the article, STASY management stated that the metro operates with the latest safety systems and that the maintenance of the network (infrastructure and rolling stock) follows preventive and corrective maintenance manuals in accordance with international standards, which have been applied since the metro began operating. They also emphasized that the largest infrastructure modernization project ever undertaken on the metro is about to begin, with the launch of two tenders for track replacement worth €8 million.