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Auditor General: Project Management Mechanism to be Promoted

Published January 15, 2026, 11:16
Auditor General: Project Management Mechanism to be Promoted

Auditor General Andreas Antonides informed the Parliamentary Control Committee about the completion of a study to establish a project management mechanism, which will be submitted for consultation to the Ministries of Finance and Transport, as well as the Deputy Ministry of Research and Innovation. The discussion focused on improving the procedures for tendering and implementing public contracts, following the Auditor General's audit in 2023 regarding the procurement of non-military systems for the protection of critical infrastructure from unmanned aerial vehicles. The Auditor General, Andreas Papakonstantinou, stated that there had been difficulty in procuring these systems by the Police for the past 10 years, with the system tested in the latest attempt proving non-functional. Problems were highlighted in the project's planning and monitoring, leading to administrative costs and loss of man-hours. The Senior First Technical Controller, Evangelos Theodoridis, emphasized that the latest tender took place in 2021 and was similar to the one in 2018. The Auditor General's audit started from the tender documents, with proposals for schedules and the lack of a maintenance contract, some of which were adopted partially or not at all. The Auditor General mentioned that the name of the unsuccessful bidder has been registered in the register of excluded public contractors. In addition, he informed that 45 professional procurement officers have been certified after two years of training and will be used in public procurement procedures, while the Police will participate in the next training cycle from 2026.