ECONOMY

OTE’s parody of disclosure over its supply contracts

OTE has done it again: Obliged by its own statutes to divulge its top suppliers and the exact amount of contracts it has secured each year, the telecommunications company instead published an alphabetical list of the top suppliers during 2002, without any accompanying figures. Thus, in this alphabetical list, given the go-ahead for publication on March 11, the Institute of Medical Research and Training is listed one notch above Intracom, when everyone knows that the difference in magnitude between the two suppliers is enormous. OTE’s Supplies Division may have thought that it could get away from its obligations with this parody of disclosure. What they cannot conceal, however is the fact that OTE has far exceeded its own proposed supplies program, obviously to the benefit of a few – very few – firms. At the end of 1997, the company’s board of directors had decided that the supply contracts to be signed during the period 1998-2001 should not exceed 350 billion drachmas (1.03 billion euros). The actual amount, to the joy of certain suppliers, was 653.5 billion drachmas (1.92 billion euros). For what reason was the target not only exceeded but expenditure almost doubled?

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