Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras has asked the ministry’s internal affairs department to check the assets of 240 senior ministry and regional officials who have handled tax inspection in recent years in an apparent bid to ensure that none of the agents of the government’s tax evasion crackdown have themselves dodged their taxes.

Internal affairs inspectors are to scour the derivation of wealth (“pothen esches”) declarations of 240 officials in accordance with a decision signed by Stournaras yesterday.

The inspections will initially target 130 officials found to have sizable deposits in foreign bank accounts and will continue with checks on other high-ranking civil servants. As regards the officials with foreign bank accounts, if their incomes do not justify their savings, they will be dismissed from the service, a high-ranking ministry official said.

Facing scrutiny are all officials who have managed departments that fall under the jurisdiction of the General Secretariat for Public Revenues, the General Secretariat for Information Systems and the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) over the past three years. Internal affairs agents will also check the pothen esches declarations of those who have worked as inspectors in the regional units of the above bodies for at least two years.