Friday, October 18, 2013

Greek Corruption

Rousfeti. Or Bribes. A word well known in the Greek language these days. Almost nothing gets down without a bribe, from politicians to teachers, to priests. The name of the game is money. A study conducted by the Brookings Institute discovered that bribery and corruption are major issues regarding the economic crisis in Greece. 8% of its GDP is lost to bribery. That’s about €20 billion a year. ($27 billion.) Former Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou stated, "Our basic problem is systemic corruption.” In 2009, 13.5% of Greek households paid a bribe of some sort on average of about €1355, from doctor’s appointments, to driver’s licenses. According to Transparency International Greece is the most corrupted country in all the 27 countries in the European Union. Corruption hurts the public finances in small ways, which eventually lead to huge consequences. When money is cheated out of taxes it expands the government deficit, because the money isn't used to the public’s needs or wants.

One of the biggest scandals in the history of Greece is that of the former defense minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos. It is a very rare case of a high profile official being faced with charges and being sentenced. The former minister is charged with corruption as he accepted bribes of at least 26 million dollars for the purchases of submarines and other military equipment and laundering the money through offshore accounts and by buying property. After a 5 months long trial, and a year and a half in custody, Akis Tsochatzopoulos was found guilty, along with 16 other co-defendants including his wife, daughter, ex-wife and cousins, and was sentenced to 20 years in jail.

Sources:

business-20605869

"BBC News - Greece 'most corrupt' EU country, new survey reveals." BBC - Homepage. Web. 18 Oct. 2013. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20605869

Walker, Marcus . "Corruption, Cronyism Fuel Greek Debt Mess - WSJ.com." The Wall Street Journal - Breaking News, Business, Financial and Economic News, World News &

1 comment:

AnonymousNovember 6, 2013 at 9:14 AM
I was really shocked by the above facts: 8% of Greece GDP is lost to bribery. 13.5% of Greek households paid a bribe of some sort on average of about €1355.The former minister accepted bribes of at least 26 million dollars. It raises a big question for me, where did the funding money flow to? If not to the public’s needs, which makes perfect sense that it eventually leads to huge economic devastating consequences.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment