A system of evasion and indifference
«Whoever has any evidence should go to a prosecutor» was the accustomed retort of the previous government to every publicized complaint about alleged corruption, scandals or shadiness; this resulted in the PASOK regime being lambasted for political indifference and evasion, as it is almost certain that those on either side of all shady transactions (it takes two to tango) know how to cover their tracks. Now we are witnessing the same behavior from the current government. Let us hope that the fresh intervention of prosecutors will eventually yield some results, bring some offenders to justice and, most importantly, stop the same thing from happening again by scaring off would-be offenders with the threat of penalties. Until now, every complaint about alleged corruption and every revelation of shady transactions in the management of state funds has been met with the «appropriate» retort (involving standard excuses such as «national necessity,» «lack of time,» and the like) which do nothing to explain to the populace why public works in Greece cost so much more than in other European countries (according to European Commission statistics, the Greek taxpayer is obliged to pay around 50 percent more) – and this is probably because we have reached the point where all state contracts go to just a handful of favored contractors.
