On Wednesday 7 October, the Municipality of Spata–Artemida paid €18,538.02 to KGS DEVELOPMENT S.A. for ‘consultancy support services’ for the project to replace street lights with LEDs. The budget line from which the project contractor is paid has a total of €877,342.12 allocated for this year, but at the end of August it showed zero payments. No payments to the contractor have been posted on the ‘Diafania’ transparency portal in 2026.
What we pay and how
The contract entitled ‘Upgrading the street lighting system of the Municipality of Spata–Artemida with a view to saving energy and reducing operating costs’ was signed on 19 April 2022 with the consortium of companies NRG SUPPLY AND TRADING – GLOBILED, following an open tender in 2021. It is a 12-year service contract, expiring on 18 April 2034. The contractor’s fee is €5,408,253.61 excluding VAT, or €6,706,234.48 including VAT, and is payable in quarterly instalments.
The money comes from the cleaning and lighting charges, which are levied on every household and business via their electricity bill. In July 2022, the Finance Committee decided, by a majority vote, to pledge these charges to the contractor as the total contract sum. The Public Power Corporation (DEI) deposits them into an escrow account with the Deposits and Loans Fund, and from there the instalment is released every quarter, subject to confirmation by the Municipality. By way of comparison, in this year’s budget, the fees for street cleaning and street lighting amount to €7,814,879.41. This year’s instalment for the LED project therefore corresponds to approximately 11 per cent of that figure.
The installation was completed on 30 June 2023: new LED lights at 11,234 locations across the municipality, together with a system for remote control of the lights and a system for preventive maintenance and fault management. The Finance Committee approved acceptance on 14 July 2023. Maintenance and fault rectification are part of the contract until 2034. If a lamppost remains unlit, the contractor is obliged to repair it. The issue is reported to the municipality.
The amounts per year
The annual fee is based on the breakdown provided by the contractor in their tender, and increases each year. The Municipality has earmarked 693,075.63 euros for 2024, €797,621.69 for 2025 and €877,342.12 for 2026, representing a 26.6 per cent increase over two years. On the ‘Diafania’ transparency portal, we found four instalments in 2025, totalling €583,107.30, divided equally between the two companies. The most recent instalment was published on 21 November 2025.
For 2026, the August budget implementation report, published at the end of September, states under code 020.2420902003 a budget of €877,342.12 and zero for both authorised and paid amounts. In the meantime, one of the two members of the contractor has changed. NRG was partially split up by a decision of 1 December 2025; its place in the contract was taken by THALIS E.S. S.A., and the consortium is now called ‘THALIS E.S. S.A. – GLOBILED M.E.P.E.’ The Municipal Council unanimously approved the amendment to the contract by Resolution 46/2026, which was published on 6 April. It is not clear from the documents whether the change of contractor is related to the delay in this year’s payments.
The adviser
KGS DEVELOPMENT has been supporting the Municipality with this project since 2022, under two successive contracts. The first was signed on 30 June 2022 (€37,051.20). The second was signed on 18 September 2024 (€37,076) and expires on 18 September 2027. The payment made on 7 October is almost exactly half the value of the second contract. Together with the previous payments we have identified – those made in July 2023 (€18,525.60), September 2024 (€11,115.36) and May 2025 (€6,179.34), the consultant has received €54,358.32.
The title of the contract refers to ‘energy savings’ and ‘reducing operating costs’. However, electricity is paid for separately: the 2026 budget allocates a further 450,000 euros for the lighting of roads, squares and public spaces. None of the documents we have seen mention how much energy has actually been saved since 2023.
Source: Municipality of Spata–Artemida, payment order ΨΜ2ΧΩ1Χ-24Ο (Diafania 07/10/2026), budget implementation 08/2026, Finance Committee decisions 289/2022 and 181/2023, Municipal Council decision 46/2026.
