“We Raised No Questions of Ethics”
Sakis Tsikouris, president of the Technical Chamber of Greece’s Standing Committee on Kalymnos, held a press conference for local media yesterday morning at the Chamber of Commerce, following the TEE’s sharply worded press releases and the response from Kalymnos Mayor I. Mastrokoukos.
At the outset, Mr Tsikouris made it clear that the purpose of the press conference was not to apologise but, as he put it, to set the record straight regarding the committee’s statements and interventions.
He maintained that the Technical Chamber had not questioned the ethics or integrity of anyone in the municipal administration. However, he renewed his strong criticism of the local authority, claiming that its established practice of awarding contracts directly has systematically excluded Kalymnos-based engineers from public-sector studies.
Mr Tsikouris also returned to the issue of understaffing within the Municipality of Kalymnos’ Technical Department. He called for the department to be strengthened with additional engineers, enabling it to prepare more technical studies in-house for projects concerning the island.
His intervention confirms that the dispute between the Technical Chamber and the municipal administration remains unresolved, centring on the procedures used to commission technical studies, the participation of local professionals and the staffing of municipal services.
Members of Kalymnos Technical Chamber, Civil Engineer Evagelis Billiris and Surveyor Engineer Savvas Drosos were present but did not take part in the press conference.
