Four Greek public servants have been called to return over €600,000 in total earnings to the state coffers, after it was deemed they had used fake education degrees and doctored certificates throughout their duties, following an audit by the National Transparency Authority (NTA).
The NTA, Greece’s independent authority designated to implement policies to detect, deter, and prevent corruption in the public sector, details that one of the employees was called to reimburse a whopping €371,992 in undue payment.
According to the inspection, which does not specify the Ministries the four Greek public servants are employed at, one is obligated to return €12,581 in unduly paid remuneration, while authorities sought the amount of €139,691 as unduly paid to another. The third, from a different ministry, was ordered to return €79,924.
It should be noted that in three of the cases, the appointments of the employees were revoked, and in one of these cases, the transfer of the employee was also revoked.
The Independent Authority for Public Revenue (IAPR) works in tandem with the NTA and is assigned to conducting inspections in public sector services and agencies regarding their actions following confirmed instances of non-genuine educational qualifications held by their employees.
At the same time, the Authority is overseeing the obligation of Administrative Directorates to record their actions on the ΕΑΔ platform, concerning the authenticity checks of the educational credentials of their employees.
