Veteran leftist cadre Alekos Flambouraris, who is widely viewed as the political mentor to SYRIZA party leader Alexis Tsipras, told public broadcaster ERT on Tuesday said he had no conflict of interest in simultaneously being the majority shareholder of a company that assumed a multi-million-euro public contract while he served as … Minister of State!

“Having a construction company and working on a daily basis, I lived without taking a drachma from the party,” he said, emphatically adding that he had ended his professional relationship with the firm upon taking office and filed paperwork to receive a retirement pension.

Contrary to this statement, however, his construction company appears thriving, despite the fact that there is a ‘creative vagueness’ concerning Flambouraris’ actual business activities. Specifically, on May 20 when he was still a minister, the firm Diatmisi S.A. signed a contract with the Peloponnese regional government worth 3.9 mln euros. The deal for the company, of which Flambouraris owns 50% of its shares, was particularly surprising at a time when public works contracts were essentially suspended due to the government’s so-called “tough negotiations” with Greece’s European creditors. Capital controls and an economic downturn were among the “low points” in SYRIZA’s tenure before a third memorandum was signed and ratified.

The contract, worth 3.9 million euros, refers to supplementary works at a fishing vessel quay in the Corinth prefecture harbor of Vrahati.

There had been a barrage of objections to the controversial deal, as the company that Flambouraris founded did not have a required tax bureau clearance, as needed from 2002.