Economy and Finance Minister Giorgos Alogoskoufis took a parting shot yesterday at the outgoing head of the committee formed to combat money laundering, Giorgos Zorbas, claiming that in his two years in the role, he had produced few results.

However, Zorbas gave as good as he got and told a parliamentary committee that he did not get the support he needed from the government and the judiciary in his bid to pursue people suspected of financial crimes.

The government, which appointed Zorbas two years ago, has had a tense relationship with him since he conducted an investigation into a bonds scandal last year. But Alogoskoufis said that the ruling conservatives were, in fact, unhappy about the quality of Zorbas’s work.

“There were serious problems with the way this setup was working and it had almost negligible contact with prosecutors, international organizations and a general inactivity that led to negative reports about our country,” said the minister.

Zorbas, who appeared before the parliamentary economic affairs committee ahead of Alogoskoufis, had stated that he had looked at 3,000 cases referred to his panel, whose actions led to 40 million euros being seized.

The minister said that Zorbas had not seized any money and that he produced only two reports, both of which were deemed invalid. Alogoskoufis also accused Zorbas of failing to develop a comprehensive plan on tackling money laundering. He also denied Zorbas’s claim that the body was not properly funded.

For his part, the committee president said that his relationship with the government fell apart after he investigated the purchase of a 280-million-euro government bond by four pension funds at inflated prices. Alogoskoufis scrapped Zorbas’s committee last week in favor of a new body that will be under his tight control.