Speaking before the parliamentary transparency committee Mr Rakintzis said that the only such evidence that existed was a list of 2,500 name of civil servants from a catalogue of criminal prosecutions compiled by public prosecutors. Mr Rakintzis stressed that 2,500 names did not mean 2,500 employees as there are some employees facing a number of prosecutions.

Mr Rakintzis comments are seen as significant as throughout the crisis, both in Greece and abroad, the civil service has been portrayed as being riddled with liars and cheats with falsified credentials and who cash salaries without working. Mr Rakintzis’s comments appear to indicate that the level of corruption within the civil service is less than some of the more outrageous news stories have portrayed.

Furthermore it has been reported that the 7,500 public employees supposedly facing sanctions would be the first to be fired from the state sector meeting troika demands for public sector layoffs. However given that these 7,500 do not exist, the government will have to implement another plan to make the cuts or miss the target. 

Regarding the 7,500 figure, the General Inspector called it ‘insane’ and attributed it to misinformed ministers. Regarding audits of the civil service, Mr Rakintzis said layoffs were restricted to 200, while another 500 cases remain to be decided. “I cannot prejudge the Council of State,” he said, noting however that the “process has been accelerated.”

As for the allegations that civil servants have been hired based on fake credentials, Mr Rakintzis admitted that, “we don’t have many such cases.” According to the inspector only in the municipal police forces were there instances of falsified credentials and even then, they were “not completely faked,” –  for example on one high school diploma a score of 10 had been doctored to look like an 18, something which nevertheless does constitute a forgery.

Mr Rakintzis said that there were 50 such cases in the Athens Municipal Police Force and a further 12 in the Dodecanese and said that appointments had been recalled.

He added that there were numerous cases of falsified foreign language credentials however these did not affect the hiring of staff but civil servant promotions.

Mr Rakintzis said that this amounts to a disciplinary offence as the credentials are not a criteria for hiring civil servants. However the employees involved have not yet faced disciplinary panels.