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The Chief Auditor of Greece revealed a Union member having 9 million euro in his bank account

02 July 2010 / 11:07:26  GRReporter
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"If the security of the state depends on the battery of a cell phone then I’m not wondering how we got here," said the Chief Auditor of the State Administration Leandros Rakindzis. He presented the annual report on corruption in the public sector, and a reason for his remark was the case of an official sanction of a flights dispatcher at the regional airport, who overslept because her phone battery run out and her alarm didn’t go off, and as a result of that she didn’t go to work on time and the regular service flight of an aircraft was canceled. The penalty that was imposed was a fine of five working days...

During the presentation of the sixth annual report for 2009, Mr. Rakindzis said that last year 4440 audits were carried out. Out of these 724 cases were forwarded to the prosecutor and another 185 were forwarded to the prosecutor by the chief inspector himself. Mr. Rakindzis has encountered outrageous cases of mismanagement, breach of duties and other irregularities, including enrichment and corruption of public officials after their declaring of real estate. Peculiar is the case of the Vice President of the Union of employees at the Ministry of Culture, who has been engaged with the management of the amounts for their overtime employment. In his account was discovered an amount of 9 million euro! In another investigation it was found that a director at the Ministry of Healthcare has participated in 31 committees, for which she was receiving large amounts of money each month. Another case which sticks out is that within the Directorate General of Sports there still exists a Commission for support of the Olympic Games, although they ended in 2004! Withing the organisation of the school buildings have been found directors who earn higher salaries than the Prime Minister. In the account of an orthopedic doctor was found the amount of 2 million. A university doctor from a state hospital from which he retired, took with him when leaving the medical records of 440 patients in his new job in a private clinic. In addition to this, after the audit in various state institutions and organizations it has been established that a huge number of labor contracts were signed in the election period: In the company TRAM Plc for the period between April 1, 2004 and September 2, 2009 the number of employees has increased by 250% . No penalty was imposed on a prison officer who issued vacation permits granted to a prisoner who did not have the necessary prerequisites for this and was sentenced to life imprisonment for murder and has escaped three times from jail and has another escape attempt.

But the "great feast" as Mr Rakidzis said happened in the state companies. According to the Chief Auditor from now on the local authorities will be prohibited from borrowing money if they can not pay them back. The proposals of Mr. Rakidzis that have already been implemented are the removal of illegal advertising boards, rent reduction of government services, establishing of an office for the demolition of illegal constructions.

Tags: news politics corruption audit
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