The strong desire to leverage the huge real estate holdings of the National Defense Fund to leverage resources and support the housing program for members of the Armed Forces, Nikos Dendias stressed, deflecting criticism from the opposition over real estate in the military.

The Minister of National Defence, intervening in the plenary session of the Parliament during the discussion of the bill on the exploitation of the real estate of the Armed Forces, revealed several cases that illustrate the long-standing problematic management of real estate while at the same time hinting at “corruption”.

In more detail, Dendias said:

In particular, he said
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– The TETH is currently housed in a beautiful neoclassical building in Plaka of 2,400 sq.m. This property can be leased for a minimum of 1 million euros per year. It currently houses 29 employees of the TETHA and another 20 employees of the Army Geographical Service. Each employee has a personal space of 60 – 70 sq.m.

– The National Fleet Fund is housed in a 700 sqm building on Fidiou Street, and 10 people work there. Each employee has 70 sq m.

– The Aviation Fund is located in a building of 400 sqm in Soutsou Street

– How many of you have been to the facilities of the Army, which is being abolished? Have you seen the swimming pool, it is 49.5 meters

-Do you know why it is not 50? Because it should be available for sporting events. This is the transparency and accountability you want to maintain.

-There’s a whole apartment building right next door to us. Corner of American and Academy. Until a few months ago, it was only used for one officer. To live in the penthouse. We stopped that and leased it for 800,000 euros a month. It was costing us 800,000 a month to house a single officer.

-Do you know the story about the building that houses the ATTIKA department store, which is the history of the Army Stock Fund? I had to renegotiate with Piraeus Bank, which unacceptably demanded that the rent remain at the level of the crisis, which again at the time, had unacceptably reduced it. And we doubled it.

And addressing the opposition parties who denounced the proposed regulations, he said, “This situation I have described to you, are you asking me to continue? I am not going to do so,” while adding, “This year, 34 more people entered the Evelpidon School than last year. We are not satisfied. To staff the armed forces, we need not only sufficient numbers but the best. This is the reality we are fighting for. From savings, I’m trying to improve the financial remuneration of the personnel. This is not the usual model of the Greek state. But the usual is to go to the national accounting office and ask for additional resources. I’m trying to save to find the money. A part of the savings goes to finance the housing of the armed forces. We are looking for resources from the utilization of property that is not operationally necessary.”

What Dendias said

The Defence Minister also referred to the development with the country’s participation in the European armament programme Safe.

“We managed to submit for the first time a 20-year framework within the budget limit. Tomorrow we will submit a request for participation for 1.2 billion euros that the Ministry of Finance gave me after negotiations. The country cannot be allowed to get back to where it was before by breaching the fiscal framework. This is co-signed by both the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.”

However, Dendias explained that drawing loan funds from the Safe Fund will not bring new armament programmes; it will bring forward the implementation of those already included in the long-term planning. “I am neither triumphant nor alarmist,” he said elsewhere about the development, noting that he would have liked more but did not negotiate it himself.