OTE becomes new party battleground
Political attention has shifted from the Siemens scandal to the buyout of retailer Germanos in 2006 by OTE telecom’s mobile phone branch Cosmote, over which criminal charges were issued on Friday. PASOK demanded that the sale of part of the government’s stake in OTE to Deutsche Telekom be put on hold until the Germanos deal is fully investigated. The Socialists also suggested that the board of the Capital Market Commission should also come under scrutiny. A prosecutor issued charges of breach of trust, money laundering and manipulation of stock prices against persons unknown last week after an investigation into the 1.6-billion-euro purchase of Germanos. «The government continues to remain silent on the issue and it is clear that it has made the decision to back the management of OTE even though it faces criminal charges,» said PASOK spokesman Giorgos Papaconstantinou. The government appeared to gives its backing to Panagis Vourloumis, OTE’s president and chief executive. «Nothing has changed,» said government spokesman Theodoros Roussopoulos when questioned about whether Vourloumis would remain in his job. Roussopoulos also pointed out that the then CEO of Cosmote, Evangelos Martigopoulos, had been appointed by PASOK. He stepped down in 2007. However, New Democracy MP Yiannis Manolis suggested that the matter warranted a closer look. «The government’s ideology is based on privatization but in this case it allowed nationalization,» said Manolis, adding that it should be established whether anyone profited from the skyrocketing price of Germanos shares.
