Greece Corruption Perceptions Index 2004 score: 4.3 (49th out of 146 countries) Conventions: Council of Europe Civil Law Convention on Corruption (ratified February 2002) Council of Europe Criminal Law Convention on Corruption (signed January 1999; not yet ratified) OECD Anti-Bribery Convention (ratified February 1999) UN Convention against Corruption (signed December 2003; not yet ratified) UN Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (signed December 2000; not yet ratified) Legal and institutional changes • The powers of the General Inspector for the Public Administration (GIPA), established in November 2002, were amended in 2003 to allow it to call for disciplinary measures against employees found violating the law. Another legislative amendment empowers GIPA’s ‘special inspectors’ to control, inspect and investigate; to act as prosecutors; and to carry out administrative interrogations. In its first year of operations, GIPA investigated 386 cases, of which 49 referred to corruption and transparency. GIPA’s 2003 report included a number of proposals for combating corruption and increasing transparency in the public administration. • During 2003 the first supreme court decisions were issued on cases involving the newly reformulated offence of bribery, which had been modified in response to the EU’s anticorruption convention. Unlike the previous wording of the law, the supreme court ruled that it is not illegal to give bribes after the action they are supposed to influence has taken place. As a result gratitude gifts are now allowed despite the obvious risk that they may create an obligation from the employee to the gift giver. • The new government elected in March 2004 made a number of legislative proposals for public administration reform, including: reform of the law on influence peddling between the media and public works contractors (see below); a proposal to eliminate the so-called ‘mathematic formula’ which was seen to be an inadequate and non-transparent means of selecting contractors; and the creation of ministerial committees with the participation of NGOs for drafting the new legislation.
Mass media and public contracts In 2003 public bodies for the first time included in bids for public contracts the provisions of a new law on mass media and public contracts. The law, based on a constitutional amendment in 2001, is intended to promote transparency and
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limit the trade in influence by prohibiting owners or shareholders of mass media organisations from participating in companies that implement public contracts. Violators of the law face serious penalties, with the possibility of recall of a broadcaster’s licence, and cancellation of the public contract.
Country reports
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