Newly appointed Development Minister Anna Diamantopoulou took some rigorous decision: She asked 37 civil servants incl. their supervisors at the ministry’s Private Investment Department to resign and ordered the inspector of public administration to open their bank accounts and investigate their assets from 2005 until today. Greek Development, Competitiveness and Shipping took this unprecedented for Greece measures after two ministry officials were arrested for blackmailing a hotelier to give them a “commission” of €120,000 so they would release an investment funding of 4 million euro. The hotelier had first reported the incident in 2005, but then Minister Papathanasiou told the Greek media, he had not named the ministry officials, so he couldn;t take any action against them.
“We must show zero tolerance against those that break the law,” Diamantopoulou told the media and urged business people to immediately report incidents of blackmail. She stressed that the ministry focuses on attracting investments and removing the obstacles faced by potential investors [including bureaucracy?]
The dismissed Ministry personnel will be replaced by staff from other ministries. Of course, the question is what will happen with them now? Most probably the 100 civil servants will be sent home on full salary until the investigation is over.
An avalanche has recently started to roll over the Greek public sector, but this avalanche rather uncovers cases of extortion of public money and bribes taken by public servants.
So far, not one single political personnel saw the need to feel responsible for failing to oversee what’s really going on in the sinister Greek public sector and resign.
Why should one resign? When everybody knows that the bribes are between the civil servants and the citizens ….lol
What a nice end to the week to read this or a great start to the weekend, either way keep digging!
I rather have someone cleaning out this total mess then one resigning. Here we are way beyond resigning. Most of these people should be behind bars for derelict of duty for starters and some even for treason.
I never liked Diamantopoulos, but if she pulls this off then I will upgrade here from D to CCC with a positive outlook. 😀
Pft! Not only does one single political personnel feel responsible for failing to oversee what’s really going on… I’m waiting to see when and if any political leaders will be brought to justice as well with their accounts confiscated!
this is only the tip of the iceberg, I’m sure. And a lot of dust in our eyes as well.
Tip of the iceberg, sure. But still a refreshing departure from the usual policy to keep all those scandals under the rug. Imho we shouldn’t stomp on the first sightings of more transparency and accountability by rdiculing and belittleing them. Kudos where kudos are due! This is a positive development and Greece needs more of this.
so it is!
Ahhhh Gray! Maybe, just maybe, you might be correct in being positive. Maybe. The other side of the coin is this: Elections are coming, the people are fed up so the politicians are making an effort. In the past, as soon as elections are over, so is everything else… I’m hoping history won’t repeat itself AGAIN! 🙁
so true! if the same politicians remain in power, history will repeat itself, I’m afraid.
Well, you folks in Greece who have witnessed this time and again sure know more about this than me, no doubt. Makes me wonder why the same two parties received such a high share of the vote for decades. If you were fed up, shouldn’t you rather have given your vote to another party? Hmm.
Btw, thx for saying “Ahhhh Gray!”, Ma’am! I always love to hear that from a woman. 😎
*stupid* lol
Ahhhh Gray…. your welcome 😉 lol
Why should one resign? When everybody knows that the bribes are between the civil servants and the citizens …
So why is everybody so stubborn and quick to blame the goverment…every single person is to blame what has happened to this country.”The famous saying why must I pay go and collect the monet from the people that stole it.Makes you wonder.
Have a good weekend all.
KTG tried to be sarcastic…
Isn’t this minister going to be replaced in about 2 months? New minister will be appointed from the old guard and the annoyances will be put back under the rug…
let’s wait and see the results of the elections. A big surprise may come, as people are really fed up.