Varoufakis says predecessor took IMF loan agreement home
Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis on Thursday told Parliament that his predecessor, Gikas Hardouvelis, had taken a document regarding the country’s loan agreement with the International Monetary Fund home with him after leaving the ministry.
Speaking to MPs on Thursday, Varoufakis said that when he asked ministry staff to locate a document regarding the two-month extension of the IMF loan he was told that the letter was among the confidential documents that the former minister had taken with him following his departure.
“They told me, and I must emphasize this, that this was an absolutely legal thing to do,” Varoufakis told Parliament.
According to the minister, there were no copies of the original agreement at the ministry and he had to personally contact the IMF in order to ask for one, a procedure which took three-and-a-half days.
On Thursday, Varoufakis asked for the drafting of legislation that would put an end to this kind of practice, a move that would “begin to heal the great wounds of the Greek public sector,” he said.
Reacting to Varoufakis’s comments, opposition MPs noted that this kind of information was available on the Parliament’s website as well as the government gazette.
