Probe into public funds
The finances of 10 state hospitals, technical colleges, municipalities and other bodies in the wider public sector are going to be checked over the next few days for alleged mismanagement of government funds. Finance Minister Giorgos Papaconstantinou ordered the probes yesterday, based on specific complaints that have been lodged by citizens or watchdogs. Sources said that inspectors would be visiting several public hospitals in Athens and Thessaloniki, the Municipality of Thessaloniki and technical colleges (TEI) in Halkida, Thessaloniki and on the Ionian islands. It is thought that this is just the beginning of stringent inspections into how public finances are being used. The government is set to hire private companies to help it sift through the accounting books of many more hospitals and municipalities, sources said. The government has been under pressure from European Union and International Monetary Fund officials to crack down on corruption in the public sector. The Finance Ministry said it would also investigate 25 tax and customs employees suspected of accepting bribes, falsifying tax returns and allowing illegal imports of textiles from China. «The Finance Ministry is determined to investigate thoroughly its own services… to restore the credibility of the financial services, which remain focused on the difficult target of increasing revenues,» the ministry said in a statement. A law passed last week requires all public bodies to report their accounts to central government on a monthly basis. PASOK hopes that this will be the start of the process to win back control over how public money is spent. General bureaucracy and the lack of computerized records means that although the government has a very precise picture of what money it gives to hospitals, municipalities and other public bodies, it has very little idea of how these funds are spent. For instance, the most recent accounting figures for local authorities are from 2005. Of 1,034 municipalities in Greece, only 30 submit a full budget report.
