PROTEUS to run
in February:
contract extended

The delay by the Ministry of the Aegean and Island Policy to award the contracts for the subsidised Dodekanese routes may result in the cancelation of the current tender and the whole process may need to be repeated with a new tender. Legal experts on the issue have indicated that the current tendering process has to be declared "unsuccessful" given that the period of 30 days for awarding the contract has passed. According to the tender's specification, each supplier is bound by their submitted tender for a period of 30 days from the closing date for tender submission. Legal sources argue that the Greek Audit Board could block any public subsidy being given on the basis of an "expired tendering process". The current competitive tenders (involving a total of 31 routes across the whole of the Aegean) took place on the 20th of November 2006.

Yesterday, Mr Aristotelis Pavlidis, the Minister for the Aegean and Island Policy extended the current contracts for the subsidised routes for another month (until the end of February) while the dispute between ferry companies for the new contracts is being settled in the courts. Following the Minister's decision, PROTEUS will continue to serve the Rhodes-Symi-Tilos-Nisiros-Kos route for at least another month and ANES have swiftly responded by publishing the February timetables.

In an interview with SKY radio in Rhodes yesterday, Mr Pavlidis argued that the reason for the delay in awarding the contracts has to do with the ongoing dispute by the ferry companies which he claims is "normal practice that happens every time". He announced that all routes for which there is no pending appeal to the State Council, the highest Greek Court, will go out to re-tender in the very near future. Mr Pavlidis tried to play down recent published reports regarding the poor boat service across the Dodekanese and the possibility that the delay in awarding the tenders might mean that the islands will be left with no boats at all by saying that "what people want is for boats to be running, and at the moment all boats run as normal" refering to the extension of the current contracts by another month.

In the mean time, Mr Euthimios Bonis, the lawyer of Mr Fotis Manousis (the boss of SAOS Ferries) submitted another appeal yesterday on behalf of SAOS Ferries against the decision of the Appeals Committee to reject the company's tender.