Bribery scandals in Greece's public sector show persistence of corruption

By Yannis Souliotis and Renee Maltezou

ATHENS (Reuters) - When Greek police raided the apartment of a 49-year-old planning officer suspected of bribery on the tourist island of Rhodes last week, they found thousands of euros stashed in her pots and pans and even the cooker hood.

Dozens have been charged in the affair, the second case in recent months where officials are accused of taking bribes for building permits.

Despite growth of over 2% that is the envy of wealthier euro zone countries, the scandals show that the corruption that helped plunge Greece into a debt crisis 15 years ago is still shackling its economy and undermining trust in institutions.

Public sector corruption, including pork-barrel politics and bribery, costs Greece up to 14 billion euros ($15 billion) a year, said Harry Papapanagos, professor of economics and vice president of Transparency International Greece.

"Corruption is costly in terms of growth, productivity, social prosperity," he said. "For Greece, such cases indicate that the cost is growing."

The cases are not all local. Mass protests last month on the anniversary of a deadly 2023 train crash attacked years of failure to address known problems. EU prosecutors have charged 14 Greek officials with subsidy fraud over a contract for railway safety systems.

Poor governance in turn undermines willingness to pay tax, harming state finances. Greece's shadow economy is among the highest in Europe at about 20% of GDP.

Transparency International ranked Greece as second worst in the euro zone for perceived corruption in 2024, and in a Eurobarometer survey last July, nearly a third of respondents said they knew someone who had been bribed.

In December, more than 100 people in northern Greece were charged in bribery cases, many of them town planners.

If there is hope for anti-graft campaigners, it lies in police data showing that complaints of corruption doubled last year.

The 49-year-old, who denies wrongdoing, was charged with participation in a criminal group receiving bribes of up to 100,000 euros for illegal building permits, court documents showed.

In May 2024, a letter to police had accused Rhodes planning officials of enjoying luxury cars and foreign travel beyond their means, adding: "Their greed has no limit."

($1 = 0.9271 euros)

(Writing by Renee Maltezou; Editing by Kevin Liffey)