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The Greek subsidiary of the international organization Transparency International presented its report in Athens in the late afternoon in order for its presentation in Europe to coincide with the countries of the East. It presents the corruption perception index in 183 countries, which this year are five more than the previous measurement. The index grades the corruption from 0, which stands for full corruption to 10, i.e. zero corruption.

"Corruption has been flourishing and uncorrupted citizens have been tolerating it. I think that is what has happened in our country. As a result, we have a deep economic crisis," said the President of the Greek branch, Costas Bakouris. "The assessment of Greece is 3.4 points. We are not even close to the minimum assessment of 5 points. We are at the 80^th place in the world ranking."

Among Member States of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, Greece is the next to the last, which is Mexico. In the European Union it is followed only by Bulgaria, which ranks 86^th in the world. Among the Member States of the Eurozone, Greece ranks last, preceded by Italy - 69^th globally.  

The corruption index illustrates the level of corruption in public sectors of countries. This year's measurement is based on 17 studies by 13 independent institutions and organizations, conducted among specialists and experts not only in the relevant country but also abroad.

"This year's index actually shows that there has been no significant change in the perception of those who watch the corruption in our country compared with last year. The data show that corruption remains a serious problem worldwide. Two thirds of the countries have not reached the minimum of five points. Protests of angry citizens demanding more government transparency, honesty and determination marked 2011. This society should be protected from the scourge of corruption in order to progress.

We have stressed the inseparable relation between transparency and economic development many times. The 2011 index has confirmed this fact due to the lowest rankings of Eurozone countries in tackling the debt crisis. This is evident especially in the assessments of Greece and Italy. Therefore, economic recovery is linked to the fight against corruption. The question here is how could we attract new capital in the form of investments given that laws do not apply, illegality is an unknown value and it is not pursued, regular taxpayers pay higher taxes, and tax evasion continues to rule."

According to Costas Bakouris, it is not strange that in the past ten years, Greece has lost € 120 billion due to bribes, and especially to tax evasion. "Despite the moment of crisis for our country, no improvement in the perception of corruption has been noted in recent years. Initiatives in the right direction, such as the "Brightening" programme, the law on military equipment, intensifying the inspections for limiting tax evasion and the findings related to the fixed football matches are not sufficient and apparently, they do not convince either citizens, or investors."

Costas Bakouris stressed that Greece could get out of the difficult situation through political will and the introduction of transparency everywhere in public life.

In early 2012, the Greek branch of Transparency International will present a comprehensive evaluation program that will include proposals for the operation of the judiciary, legislature and other institutions responsible for fighting corruption.

"The undeclared national product is at least a third higher than the declared one. If we calculate the revenue and related taxes, we see that the state would have gained between € 18 and 20 billion annually in case of complete absence of tax evasion. Small-scale tax evasion, the so-called envelope bribes, fell last year. But two years ago, when it was in full bloom, the amount was closer to one billion. In the first months of 2011, the parliamentary committee which investigated the supply contracts for telecommunications equipment from the German company Siemens and the security systems for the Olympic Games announced that the value of corruption could be over € 2.3 to 2.7 billion in the period 1995-2002. Figures might not be very accurate, but they show that we are facing a serious problem. Its more serious side is tax evasion. It is estimated that if we could cut this by half, we would have revenues of at least € 10 billion a year and we would be able to solve a significant part of our financial problems. Not to mention the lack of social solidarity and values and the imposition of the belief that from a moral standpoint, it is acceptable for the citizens to "capture" the state and not to pay for anything. These things must be put to an end. This is not fair and we need to understand that tax evasion is forcing regular taxpayers to pay more."