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Victoria Mindova

About 20 billion euro is the annual loss of the Greek social security bureaus and the state as a whole from the activities of the illegal economic emigrants in the country. This was announced by Atinas Dretta, secretary general of the Ministry of employment and social security. Currently the government has not program prepared for solving this problem, however Dretta assured the public that the ministry will come out with an official standpoint on the matters of employment of the illegal emigrants as soon as possible.

The heavy administrative procedure and the lack of common policy for the legalization of the illegal emigrants in the country turned out to be a drop in the sea of problems which the team of minister Andreas Loverdos presented to the journalists. Another problem that has gathered heads, discussed at the meeting was the one about the debts of the pharmaceutical corporations and the suppliers towards the state bureaus. These debts are at the amount of up to 30 million euro only for the second trimester of 2009. The first step undertake by the ministry of healthcare is to inform through individual letters the 263 companies about the total amount of their debts. Another measure introduced is carrying out of close cross examinations of the hospitals, clinics, private consulting rooms and pharmacies for the determination of the authenticity of the treatments and the prescribed medications. More specifically it is about procedures and medications that are covered by the national social security and are registered in the expenses part of the national budget. The verifications will start in the beginning of February this year and in case irregularities are determined proceedings will be started against the violators under the principal of financial frauds. The controlling agencies will be informed of the subject of their examination in the day of the audit in order to avoid attempts for corruption.

The deputy minister of employment and social security George Kutrumanis presented twelve measures for restriction of the capital flight from the social security bureaus. One of the measures is the introduction of a new type of effective supervision over the payment of the social security charges by the citizens and the corporations. In case of a delay the new system will inform immediately the debtor for the delayed payment. The currently active penal fees for hiring people without paying social and pension security will stay 500 euro for the employee and 1000 euro for the employer. An important innovation is the system under which the employer will pay to the employees (season farmers, domestic assistants, gardeners etc.) with special checks available to be purchased in every commercial bank in the country. These checks will be paid to the workers after the government automatically stops the amount of the social security corresponding to the paid remuneration. The end goal of the ministry is to accumulated two billion euro from decrease of the budget expenses and optimization of its activities in order to meet its commitments to the European stability contract.

At a press conference was also presented the new program for the opening of 65 thousand work places annually for the time frame between the years 2010 – 2013. The companies which hire new employees from the employment bureaus (OAED) will be able to take advantage of the new rules introduced by the minister Andreas Loverdos. The state will undertake the engagement to cover the expenses on the social and pension security up to hundred percent and reduce the budget of the above mentioned corporations from these expenses. For the second year the state will cover seventy five percent, for the third year fifty percent and for the fourth year twenty five percent of the social security expenses.