“Corruption is a national threat,” Greek Prime Minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, said on Monday on the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day. Speaking at the event “Technology and Transparency” organized by the National Corruption Authority, Mitsotakis said, among others:
In 2012, Transparency International ranked Greece 94th in the list with the countries with corruption. A series of important efforts brought Greece in the 54th position in 2015 and afterwards there was a 13 drop to the 67th position in 2018.
He described the Greek corruption performance as “shameful for a European state” and blamed the former left-wing government of SYRIZA for this condition. “A sad bequest of a government that consistently spoke of a moral advantage,” the PM said.
“This condition constitutes a national threat and harms the country’s credibility. It disencourages the investments and leads to the loss of valuable resources and destroys the confidence of the citizens in the state and in the politics in total,” Mitsotakis stressed.
Welcoming the creation of the National Transparency Authority as a groundbreaking factor for eliminating corruption in Greek public life, Mitsotakis said “we start with the restoration of the politics as well as of the civil servants’ prestige in any aspect of the public life by streamlining the prevention mechanism and tackling corruption and by equipping them with the appropriate methods and mostly the most modern means.”
It is the first time Greece has an independent National Transparency Authority that will take steps to support transparency and fight corruption.
Just published! Eurobarometer 482 on Businesses' attitudes towards corruption in the EUhttps://t.co/sX3GC6HdOl
37% of EU 🇪🇺 companies consider corruption a problem when doing business in their country pic.twitter.com/gr0Eyoq7eV— EuroBarometer (@EurobarometerEU) December 9, 2019
58% of people doing business in Greece consider corruption as a “problem.”
PS Apparently doctors in Greece’s public hospitals did not hear yet of the NTA and they keep asking money under the table by patients.
Corruption Dear Facky Lacky, is the national character!
Everyone in Europe knows that doing business in Greece involves corruption, that why no one is investing there, everyone knows the Greek word
Fakelaki, that just half the Greek problems, the list is endless.