Revelations that one of four winning bidders in a recent auction for nationwide television broadcast licenses used deeds for remote pasture land as collateral for a necessary bank guarantee generated a firestorm of controversy on Friday.
As expected, the bidders who failed to win a license, including two current broadcasters, as well as the political opposition, sharply criticized the leftist Greek government.
Speaking on an Athens area radio station – which is affiliated with one of the stations that failed to win a license – relevant Minister Christos Spirtzis said that if “what Kalogritsas did was illegal, with the deadline for submission of the letter or guarantee, or with the farm land on his statement of means declaration, then let him be disqualified.”
Spirtzis was referring to Ioannis Kalogritsas, the son of a well-known public works construction contractor, whose recently established holding company won a license in a closed-door electronic auction that lasted almost three days.
Spirtzis also said that he never hid his friendship and family ties with Kalogritsas, while rejecting persistent charges of favoritism extended to the former.
Another charge leveled at the Kalogritsas bid is the fact that a letter of guarantee, which was a prerequisite for participation in the auction process, was submitted after a relevant deadline.
The pasture land in question is described as located on a remote and hilly part of the Ionian island of Ithaca, with its value reportedly described as meager.
Kalogritsas’ holding company came away with the second license, at a cost of 52.6 million euros, and after no less than 78 electronic rounds of bidding.
