Greece has seen it share of economic troubles over the past few years. Yet within these troubles there has been some good news around the fight against the endemic corruption usually associated with the Greek financial system. In an article in the Financial Times, the economic downturn has caused Greek physicians to reduce their standard bribe rate for fakellakia (envelopes stuffed with cash) from €5000 to €500 for a serious operation. Progress indeed.
The article reported on the impending retirement of the country’s inspector general of public administration, Leandros Rakintzis, who is retiring after 11 years on the job. Most interestingly, he tried to retire once before, only to find there was no person in the entire country willing to take on the position. Talk about evidence of a culture of non-compliance.
