For well over a decade, the 1,217-gross-ton ferry Alkyon (built 1965) has been moored in a remote backwater of the Port of Piraeus and, as each year passes, the abandoned ship settles deeper in the water. Observers fear that it will sink altogether sooner rather than later.
No doubt the Piraeus Port Authority (PPA) is well aware of the problem but those following the ship’s decline say the PPA's hands are tied by Greece’s complicated bureaucracy.
TradeWinds is told that the Alkyon was seized by the Organisation for Public Property Management, better known by its Greek acronym ODDY, over contraband cigarette smuggling. Therefore, the PPA has no jurisdiction over the ship.
ODDY, which was downgraded to a directorate (DDDY) following Greek financial reforms, has tried to auction the ship several times but it also has run up against red tape.
The Alkyon owes substantial amounts of money to the Greek Seamen’s Pension Fund as well as the usual posse of creditors who line up once a ship has been arrested.
DDDY’s primary role is to auction assets seized while being used for criminal activities but, unlike an admiralty court, it has no authority to sell the Alkyon with a clear title. Any buyer would have to settle all other debts filed against the ship before they could do anything with it.
Not surprisingly, nobody has ever shown an interest in buying it.
How this bureaucratic stalemate pans out in the future remains to be seen.
