http://vaspers.blogspot.gr/2012/10/gree ... -true.html
The year is 2012. Greece is on the verge of financial collapse. Austerity measures are feeding the recession. Greece is caught in a vicious circle.
Now, you would think that the 3 governments that have been in power since the problem became evident back in 2010, would push reforms to eliminate the cause of the problem. And the cause is not the "high" wages or the "high" pensions. Those were low in the majority of the working populous to begin with.
So, what is Greece's problem? Mainly? Corruption and bureaucracy.
Let me explain:
When in the mid 1980's the tourist industry started blooming there were a lot of investors interested in building tourist resorts on Greek islands and on the mainland. Locations were available and in some cases so where buildings that could be renovated and expanded. A group of such investors I know of consisted of Greek, expatriate Greek and foreign investors.
They put up a fund of a few hundred million drachmas and came to Greece to get the license from the state and invest. At that time, only this one business plan would give 5000 jobs to start with.
They started working through a maze of bureaucracy and at a point caught the attention of the Minister of Finance. They had an appointment with him and told him about the obstacles they encountered from public officials, mostly requesting money to advance their case...
The Minister then seemed sincere when he told them to wait and he would solve their problem. He promised them he would meet with them in a few days. So they waited... and waited.
A couple of weeks later there was no sign of the Minister. So they tried contacting him. He was out of reach. They tried again and again. They requested appointments and they were denied because the Minister had a full schedule. In the mean time, the public officials continued putting obstacles on their way and asking for even more money...
After a couple of months the Minister was nowhere to be found and they decided to take their business to Spain... End of story. 5000 jobs lost and who knows how much revenue!
So how is it you ask that there was a blooming tourist industry in Greece?
Simple. Almost everybody who finally did invest paid a lot of money on corrupt public official, up to the ministers and the prime minister. In fact, most of those investments that didn't keep paying are now either in debt or gone. Only the corrupt and a few lucky ones have managed to survive.
There was also an added catch when you dealt with the state that way. It usually involved hiring employees, members of the ruling party, that never showed up to work but got paid all the same. This practice destroyed a number of Greek industries such as Patras textile industry, Corfus Spaghetti industry and a number of others.
Latest victim is the Scaramangas Shipyards. 13 hundred workers, most of whom have families pay for the way the shipyards where used to accommodate ruling party members. In fact I even have a relative who's father was a unionist at the shipyards and managed to get his son hired to do what? Fetch faxes from the communication office to the receiver office. He got paid more than workers doing the heavy construction work!
This practice continues even today. Corruption is at an all time high despite the financial problems we have. Just a few months ago, a private College that owes 300,000 euros of pension securities, got a deal to pay this sum in 4700 monthly payments!!! Yes, you read correctly. The deal ends in the year 2404. And that was put on paper!!! It was brought to the parliament this week, a week after it was revealed by a journalist's magazine called Hot Doc. Now it is evident that public officials got thousands of euros as payment for that scandalous agreement. I cannot believe they are just THAT stupid!
As a member of the Pirate Party of Greece I believe that only if we stop this corruption and put an end to bureaucracy with true reforms, Greece can move forward, get out of the recession and pay its debt.