TA NEA

The Metapolitefsi* Era turns 40

Today marks the completion of four decades since the fall of the dictatorship and the beginning of the longest, until now, period of political peace for the Greek state. 

*Metapolitefsi: The reinstation of democracy after the fall of the military regime.

EFIMERIDA TON SYNTAKTON

The Proton Bank case: Prosecutor summons George Provopoulos

As suspects of having committed felonies the former governor of the Bank of Greece and BoG officials will provide explanations about Proton Bank and its purchase by Lavrentis Lavrentiadis.

KATHIMERINI

133 municipal bodies are ignoring the state and the law

They refuse to participate in the head-count and declare their employees and the salaries they pay them/

For three years the Greek state has tried and failed to count the total number of employees in local municipalities. And if the Ministry of the Interior has information about those who work in the central services of municipalities and municipal bodies which function as Legal Public Entities, the same is not the case with the 133 Legal Private Entities of municipalities (out of a total of 693) which refused to participate in the census. The developmental municipal enterprises refuse to send the information under the excuse that ‘they don’t burden the state budget given that they are chiefly funded through programs’ such as European Structural Funds. In reality however they are a ‘part’ of the state, given that they receive state funding through the municipal owned shares. At such enterprises it is estimated that 12,000 people are employed of which 6,000 make up the boards which handle the funds as they see fit. It is worthy of note that many of these enterprises should have shut because they are loss making, yet the relevant bodies have not, to this day, proceeded with any of the necessary audits.

And the chaos has no end. Some employees are paid excessively for no reason while others have not been paid for months, some operate under special conditions and others are not listed anywhere, many different types of contracts and means of hiring make up the riddle that the government is trying to solve in local government with meagre results.

 

 

IMERISIA

Optimistic messages for GDP – employment

0.7% growth and a fall in unemployment is predicted by IOBE (the Foundation for Economic and Industrial Research)

The third quarter will be a turning point for the course of the economy

Over 50,000 new jobs will be created in the second half of the year according to a study by the National Bank of Greece

High rates of growth – at least 2.3% on average per year is the ‘key’ to limit unemployment to 12% in 2020.

AVGI

3,795,100 citizens in extreme poverty

A dramatic increase due to the Memorandum

Wage cuts were a mistake the IMF now admits!

The data over poverty in Greece is taking on dimensions of a humanitarian crisis as it is also in other European countries which were forced to enter memorandum agreements. According to official data of the Statistical Service for 2013, our country holds the dismal first place in Europe given that 3,795,100 of our fellow people, 34.6% of citizens are facing the nightmare of poverty. The situation is expected to further worsen this year due to the new reductions in incomes, the increase in tax burdens and insecurity at work.

At the same time the IMF in its report for the Eurozone recognizes, albeit after the fact, that the asphyxiating policy of austerity which was implemented in Greece with large reductions in pay not only did not improve competitiveness, but harmed economic activity. The government avoided commenting on the issue. SYRIZA spokesperson Dimitris Stratouis spoke of social impoverishment due to the harsh austerity imposed by the Samaras – Venizelos government.