Etudes par pays volume 2, PDF, 346 p., 1,4 Mo - Femise

11873_2002 Study D2: Poverty, Informal Sector, Health and Labour
A study of the Council of Europe by GRECO, referring to the case of
Greece, maintains that corruption is not limited to the ‘’little envelop’’ got
by certain civil servants for complementing their income, but it has become
wide scale, taking advantage of international networks, including those of
organized crime. This is the case, for instance, with illegal migration
trafficking and prostitution networks (p. 17). According to this report, no
official study exists on corruption in Greece. The GRECO evaluation team
(GET) refers however to a 1998 study, drafted on the initiative of a
parliamentarian, showing that ‘’corruption was on a larger scale than had
been imagined, affecting in particular the police, the tax authorities and the
construction sector’’. Furthermore, from the replies to a questionnaire,
corruption takes the form of bribery (passive or active). Among the different
forms is the bribery of public officials to assist people to get subsidies or aid
from the EU funds, or to help immigrants from Central and Eastern Europe
to obtain the Greek citizenship. On the basis of these developments, it is
suggested that Greece needs a global comprehensive strategy, not a
fragmentary one, against corruption (p.25). Money laundering is a separate
criminal offense (L. 2331/1995). This law has established a body
responsible for centralizing information on laundering operations (GRECO,
p.6). The ‘’Section 7 Committee’’ is an independent administrative
authority funded by the ministry of finance.
Crime is proved to be a lucrative business endeavour. Data presented in a
colloquy at the Technical University of Crete in Greece, in 1999, show that
about 1000 persons were murdered, in the preceding five years and 6,200
were injured by criminals during the process of crimes and terrorists’
attacks. It is estimated that out of the 292,000 criminal acts, robberies,
burglaries, etc, criminals made about 323 million Euros. This figure does
not include the proceeds from the sale of drugs and the trafficking of women
and illegal migrants, neither the proceeds from the counterband of
cigarettes, cosmetics and alcoholic beverages, all of which are a flourishing
business in Greece. On a world-wide basis, UNICEF presents data of the
annual trafficking of women and children for the purpose of prostitution,
amounting respectively to 700,000 and 1,000,000, with Greece having a fare
share at least for women trafficking from Central and Eastern Europe. Out
of this global crime, it is noted that traffickers make about 30,000 USD per
head, totaling a revenue of the order of 51 billion USD annually.
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