Monumental delays on the part of Greek justice but also the role of former premier Kostas Simitis came under the spotlight in Parliament on Friday, as MPs discussed the findings of a Parliamentary fact-finding committee investigating scandals involving the multinational Siemens.
All political parties agreed that the affair had been a major and unprecedented political and economic scandal and called for further investigation by a Parliamentary Preliminary Examination Committee empowered to send politicians to trial.
Stinging accusations levelled against Simitis by Justice Minister Haris Kastanidis also caused a major stir, with Kastanidis (pictured) accusing the former premier of having stalled and eventually quashed legislation designed to restore political control over the way public contracts were awarded.
Revealing correspondence between Simitis and himself in period 1996-1997 when he was transport minister, Kastanidis said the former premier had at first delayed him from bringing draft legislation setting up an independent authority for public procurements to Parliament and then scrapped the proposal outright as unnecessary, even though it had been among Pasok's pre-election pledges.
According to Kastanidis, a series of public-sector functions had been handed over to "mechanisms outside the control of the legal representatives of the popular sovereignty" during the mid-90s and the independent authority he proposed sought to "restore the principle that politics takes precedence and economic factors follow".
While initially appearing supportive of the proposal, Simitis had then expressed doubts when this was ready to be tabled and later, when Kastanidis was away on a trip to the United States, had presided over a cabinet meeting that rejected the proposal outright.
Kastanidis went on to claim that the former premier had failed to reply to repeated letters that asked for such a system to be set up, at least in the transport sector, until the minister finally decided to resign his seat at the end of August 1997.
Speaking in Parliament, the justice minister went on to claim that these events were "a crucial turning point" and that the future of the country would have been different if the entire political establishment had then accepted a different operating methods for awarding public procurement and public works contracts, cutting off the "umbilical cord" between politics and business.
He said he was prompted to reveal this correspondence by Simitis' statements the previous day, which he claimed were "completely inaccurate".
Starting off the debate, ruling Pasok rapporteur Sifis Valyrakis and main opposition New Democracy's Grigoris Apostolakos had also stressed the massive delays on the part of Greek justice, pointing out that not a single one of the cases concerning suspect Siemens contracts had so far arrived before a court.
"This is one of the unprecedented corruption scandals, exceptionally extensive and systematic, which is a phenomenon of Greek administration," Valyrakis said and compared the Siemens kickbacks case with "a Greek tragedy". He also noted that "for more than 20 years, specific judges have failed to reach a conclusion regarding Siemens' contracts" and had failed to promptly send any evidence of political involvement in the scandal to Parliament.
Communist Party of Greece (KKE) MP Thanassis Pafilis said the scandal was a "huge political issue" between the Greek and German governments, adding that it could not be resolved through "judicial formulas" as the government was attempting. He also accused the two main parties of attempting a cover-up and of knowing about the scandal, which was sending money into their party coffers and allowing some people to get rich.
According to Popular Orthodox Rally (Laos) MP Kostas Aivaliotis, the fact-finding committee had "failed abysmally" in uncovering the facts, especially the path taken by the money exchanged in the case and particularly funds that ended up in party coffers, while criticising the protection offered to the three former prime ministers.
On behalf of the Coalition of the Radical Left (Syriza), MP Dimitris Papadimoulis called for a Parliamentary Preliminary Examination Committee on the Siemens case.
ANA
