With the government anxious to track down tax cheats, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras has asked his Internal Affairs Department to check the assets of 240 senior ministry and regional officials who have handled tax inspection in recent years in an apparent bid to ensure that none of the agents of the government’s tax evasion crackdown have themselves dodged their taxes, the newspaper Kathimerini reported.
Internal affairs investigators will examine the declaration of wealth forms of the officials and try to determine if they are accurate or if any of the tax inspectors have cash, property or other holdings that doesn’t jibe with their income. The tax inspection department has a reputation as being among the most corrupt sectors with charges that inspectors accept bribes and look the other way instead of prosecuting tax cheats.
The inspections will initially target 130 officials found to have sizable deposits in foreign bank accounts and will continue with checks on other high-ranking civil servants. if their incomes do not justify their savings, they will be dismissed from the service, a high-ranking ministry official said.
Facing scrutiny are all officials who have managed departments that fall under the jurisdiction of the General Secretariat for Public Revenues, the General Secretariat for Information Systems and the Financial Crimes Squad (SDOE) over the past three years. Internal affairs agents will also check the declarations of those who have worked as inspectors in the regional units of the above bodies for at least two years.
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