Graft checks at universities
Financial crimes squad (SDOE) inspectors have been checking the accounts of a number of regional universities and technical colleges (TEI) over the last few weeks and have discovered a range of cases involving the suspicious use of public money, sources told Kathimerini. Universities alone receive about 60 million euros in public funding each year and it has long been suspected that the lack of stringent checks on how this money has been spent has allowed corrupt practices to develop. Sources said that, at one regional TEI, inspectors found that the college had paid a contractor to paint the building for dozens of euros per square meter, which was clearly much more than the institution should have paid. SDOE officers have also been scrutinizing special accounts that were set up to manage the funds that universities gained from providing research or other academic services to the state or public sector.
