Inquiry gets closer to the answers
Following a series of ridiculous misadventures, the parliamentary committee investigating the Siemens cash-for-contracts scandal is finally getting down to the marrow of this tangled affair. Testimony about small «gifts» and household appliances being given by the German electronics firm in exchange for favorable treatment makes for amusing reading but hardly says anything about the magnitude of the case. Siemens, together with its local allies and accomplices, succeeded in gaining a privileged relationship with then state-owned company OTE telecom and other bodies by bribing politicians and government officers. The German company, in cahoots with its local cohorts, also followed the tradition of businesses that live off the state and illegally poured money into the coffers of the country’s two biggest political parties. The political system today is paying a heavy price for the Siemens scandal and the public expects the investigation to shed light into even the darkest corners of the affair without bias toward any particular party or group. If this is achieved, it will mark a major step toward purging the political system of corruption.