According to a parliamentary question posed yesterday by opposition leader Alexis Tsipras to Finance Minister Giannis Stournaras, in the three years since signing the memorandum spending by the finance ministry has risen dramatically. In total successive governments paid banks, legal firms and consultancies 1.16 billion euros over the period 2004-2012.
The sum described by Tsipras as ‘dizzying’ includes dramatic rises in spending on advisers by the Ministry of Finance in recent years. Specifically in the first two years of the memorandum such spending more than tripled, while in 2012 (the year the PSI deal was struck over Greek debt) spending rose tenfold to a total of 635 million euros.
Tsipras gave examples of specific companies saying, “As consultants for the PSI, the LAZARD company received €25 million and the law firm CGSH (Hamilton) €6 million and €1.5 million per month of delays.” Tsipras added that the 1.1 billion was spent while, “austerity measures spread poverty and misery in Greek society.”
Tsipras is now demanding the Finance Ministry explain why spending on advisers increased so dramatically, as well as give detailed information on the companies that have been chosen as current advisers to the government, how much they have been paid and whether companies were chosen after an international tender.
The Finance Ministry has yet to respond. However it seems clear that since Greece signed the Memorandum with its lenders, the Finance Ministry has relied heavily on private consultancy firms for advice on how to reduce government debts; or at least, it would appear, government debts to anyone other than private consultancy firms.