PM Mitsotakis: National Transparency Authority is a significant innovation

"In 2012, Transparency International ranked Greece 94th in the list with the countries with corruption," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on Monday, speaking at the event "Technology and Transparency" organised by the National Corruption Authority on the occasion of the International Anti-Corruption Day.

A series of important efforts brought Greece in the 54th prosition in 2015 and afterwards there was a 13 drop to the 67th position in 2018. A performance shameful for a European state and a sad bequest of a government that consistently spoke of a moral advantage. This condition constitutes a national threat and harms the country's credibility. It disencourages the investments and leads to the loss of valuable resources and destroys the confidence of the citizens in the state and in the politics in total, Mitsotakis underlined.

"We start with the restoration of the politics as well as of the civil servants' prestige in any aspect of the public life by streamlining the prevention mechanism and tackling corruption and by equipping them with the appropriate methods and mostly the most modern means" Mitsotakis stressed.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Monday welcomed the creation of the National Transparency Authority as a groundbreaking factor for eliminating corruption in Greek public life.

"In 2012, Transparency International ranked Greece 94th in the list of countries with [the lowest] corruption," the prime minister said, speaking at the event "Technology and Transparency" organised by the National Transparency Authority on the occasion of International Anti-Corruption Day.

A series of important efforts had raised Greece to the 58th position of the same index in 2015 but the country had slipped back nine places to 67th in 2018, Mitsotakis noted, adding: “A shameful performance for a European state and the sordid legacy of a government that constantly referred to [its] moral advantage.”

According to the prime minister, this situation was a national threat that undermined Greece’s credibility and discouraged investments, leading to the loss of valuable resources and destroying trust in the state and politics generally.

"We will begin by restoring the prestige of politics and its functionaries in every aspect of public life, streamlining mechanisms for prevent and combating corruption and equipping them with the proper powers, the right methods and, most importantly, the most modern technical means," Mitsotakis stressed.

The prime minister said that for the first time the country has an independent National Transparency Authority taking innovative steps to support transparency and fight corruption, while underlining that the previous SYRIZA government had put a member of the cabinet in charge of checking corruption, so that the government was essentially in charge of controlling itself.

The National Transparency Authority, which was established in the government’s first act of legislation and brings together six separate and disjointed agencies with similar remits, was a very significant innovation, Mitsotakis noted. It provides institutional protection to the fight against corruption and lays the foundations for building an expertise that will be able to address the problem effectively and without intervention from any political party, he added.