“Corruption is widespread in the Greek society and in order to combat it, political will – that does not exist – is required,” General Inspector of Public Administration Leandros Rakintzis was quoted as saying.
Rakintzis continued by stating corruption costs Greece 33 billion euros every year. Therefore, provided that corruption did not exist for 10 years, Greece’s debt would have been eliminated.
However, he said that the corruption cost has been reduced as a result of the economic crisis. For example, before the memoranda, doctors demanded up to 5,000 euros from their patients, while the relevant amount has been reduced to 300 euros.
He also referred to “sinful” public works such as the Sparta motorway. The contractor received the total amount of the work’s budget (17 million euros), but the road was never constructed and the country is now under threat to pay a high fine to the EU.
Rakintzis argued that in order to tackle corruption the people’s attitude should change adding the need for political will. “The government announced that they will crackdown on corruption, but nothing has been done so far,” he underlined.
