The government abolishes two crucial entities for the control of financial crimes and labor issues. The Financial Crime Squad (SDOE) and the Labor Inspection Unit (SEPE) will no longer be separate, independent entities but will be transferred to ministries,, Deputy Minister for Tax Policy Apostolos Vesyropoulos announced on Thursday and triggered a storm of reactions, mainly by main opposition SYRIZA.
The moves aim to relieve the officials of SDOE and SEPE from political attachments, the deputy minister said, reduce the size of the state and slash the number of general secretariats by a third.
24 years after its establishment, SDOE’s activities are being transferred to the Finance Ministry’s Secretariat for Tax Policy.
“The move will be judged by its result,” Vesyropoulos said, adding that if problems occur along the way, “no one is stopping us from making corrections.”
SYRIZA deputy and former SDOE head, Tryfon Alexiadis attacked the decision, saying that the abolition of SDOE is the “best gift” the government could give to tax evaders, black marketers and other financial criminals.”
“Abolishing the independence of the Labor Inspection Unit and bringing it under the General Secretariat of Labor is a clear move to undermine it,” said former Labor minister and SYRIZA MP Effie Achtsioglou
Greeks express their mistrust on social media with majority of them saying that “an MP or a minister could now intervene and solve an issue of a caught tax evader or an employer with a single phone call.”
so for how many years has the syriza administration known exactly the names of the couple dozen top tax-delinquents who owe tens of billions, but never lifted a finger to pursue a cent from them? But they send SDOE to shut down a mom-and-pop vegetable stand for selling five bucks woth of salad greens?
i dont expect much better from the new administration but anybody trying to make the claim that SDOE was somehow good for anyone but big business is horrifically cynical , totally blind, or outright monstrous.
you’ve probably have missed the news on fines imposed by SDOE