The draft law of the Ministry of Justice on the source of the tax liability contributes to the strengthening of transparency and the quality upgrade of the control of asset status declarations and declarations of financial interests, as mentioned by ND rapporteur Giorgos Koumoutsakos, speaking earlier today in the Parliament.

The ND rapporteur George Koumoutsakos, referring to the provisions on how to proceed, he pointed out that the bill promotes the complete digitization of the process, the clear demarcation of the audit work and the upgrading of its quality.

He stated in particular that the following changes occur with the bill:

– the existing fragmented, piecemeal and ultimately difficult to understand legislative framework for the submission of asset status declarations and declarations of financial interests is systematized.

– the 49 cases of debtors had formed a complex environment and therefore from now on they are included in 13 “comprehensible categories of debtors”, thus facilitating the relevant search and more clearly defining the obligation to submit.

– an independent obligation of spouses, estranged spouses or parties to a cohabitation agreement is provided for in a declaration of assets and financial interests.

The aim is to make the registration more complete and personalized, so that the approval of the debtor’s statement does not depend on the aforementioned persons.

– Debtors are exempted from the time-consuming and laborious process of collecting the required information of the declaration.

The relevant provision concerns confirmations from banks for account balances.

All the necessary details of the statement will now be captured automaticallythrough the relevant electronic systems, as long as the debtor consents.

– The sending of the contracts by the notaries will be done electronically, through pothen.gr application

– the number of annually audited statements increases by up to 7% over a three-year period, with the introduction of an annual audit target by the competent Audit Committee. This will happen with the minimum number of audited statements, with risk analysis criteria and other elements, to select the statements to be audited.

– the audit body will take a reasoned decision on the audit criteria every year.

-the establishment of the position of Audit Coordinator is envisaged, which is occupied by the head of the special service of the current committee of the 2003 law.

– In order to prevent the multi-distribution of the audit work, the exclusive competence will now be held by one body.

European Public Prosecutor’s Office

Referring to the second part of the bill, for the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, the ND rapporteur said that the aim is to fully harmonize the existing legal framework with the Council Regulation regarding the strengthening of cooperation for the establishment of the European Public Prosecutor’s Office.

In particular, and as Giorgos Koumoutsakos pointed out:

– it is stipulated that only a public prosecutor can be eligible for a European public prosecutor, with the rank of deputy prosecutor of appeals to public prosecutor of appeals, due to the presumed experience of the aforementioned officials in handling similar cases.

– the competence function of the authorized European prosecutors is redefined and the facilitation of the procedural process governing the handling of cases within their competence, with additions concerning both the competence to carry out criminal prosecution and the completion of the referral and admission process for felonies and misdemeanors, as well as and in the field of procedural powers, for conducting investigative acts.

– the mandated European prosecutor is provided with the procedural tools available to financial prosecutors, to carry out special investigative acts.

– the Council of the Supreme Ice is determined as the competent authority, for the resolution of disputes between European and national prosecutorial authorities.

The Opposition

The bill has positive points, but it also includes provisions that raise questions, said SYRIZA rapporteur Kostas Zachariadis.

“The New Democracy parliamentary group had the intelligence, and well done to it, to bring a serious and honest man to today’s bill. It could be, for example, if this bill had come a year ago, the Member of Parliament for Grevenon – independent now, I’m talking about then – would have been a Rapporteur from the New Democracy side in the parliamentary group, etc. Patsis. I say this because, okay, Mr. Minister, you are proposing some regulations over here, some may have positive elements and some may have question marks. But I think that with your political path and behavior all this time you have injured the public discourse to a great extent and there are huge unanswered questions.“, commented Mr. Zachariadis and added: “after what has happened to a number of people, it happens that most or all of them are in the camp of the Sympolization, how can you talk to society about where you are from?».

The rapporteur of SYRIZA, during his intervention, referred to the loans of the ND, amounting to 400 million euros, and wondered how much the Greek people are paying today for the interest rate that they bear. In relation to the proposed provisions, the SYRIZA rapporteur pointed out, among other things, that:

– absolute control is given to a single audit committee.

-spouses’ separate declarations may lead to more paperwork and matching problems with the debtors’ declarations.

– no reference is made to the right of MPs to request control over specific statements from any sources.

– the number of sample checks is increasing because the people being checked are increasing.

-the flow of money for repaying loans is not controlled. The guarantees given for obtaining loans are not checked.

The special buyer of the KKE Maria Komninaka said that “indeed, with the bill the legislative framework is systematized to a certain extent and with the digitalization of the entire process, but also with the increase of audited declarations per year”. The member of the KKE, among other things, pointed out that:

– a question arises as to whether these controls can actually be carried out, when with fewer obligees the control was far from actually being carried out.

– the audit committee is still not given representation to all political parties.

– they were removed from the obligation to declare mobiles worth more than 40,000 euros, which until now were included in the obligation to declare where they belong.

– credit card debts exceeding 5,000 euros are exempt from the obligation to declare as loan contracts.

In relation to the second part of the bill, Maria Komninaka said that the European Public Prosecutor’s Office is a mechanism that actually operates over and above the national judicial systems of the member states, acts in the interest of the Union and is accountable only to its institutions.

“We believe that, especially in the issues that concern even these possibilities of monitoring electronic communications, in terms of suspects or accused, which is expanded to cover all felonies, that a very dangerous path is being opened, overcoming if you want even these provisions of the new law about the removal of secrecy”, said the special buyer of the KKE and added: “We are particularly wary of this expansion of the possibilities given also in terms of investigative acts, but also overall we will talk in detail about the operation of the European Public Prosecutor».

The provisions for the automatic admission to the system of the necessary certificates are moving in the right direction, according to the special buyer of Hellenic Solution Antonis Mylonakis.

The member of the Hellenic Solution he also raised an issue with the non-representation of all political parties on the Audit committee.

“Tell me, one reason that should be only Mr. Zachariadis and not Mr. Chitas. A simple example I tell you, or any member of the Hellenic Solution. Why does Mr. Zachariadis only have credibility? I am now saying Mr. Zachariadis, because he is the Rapporteur, whom I did not hear say, that the Committee should be represented by all the political parties that are in the Parliament“, said Mr. Mylonakis.

At the same time, the special buyer of the Hellenic Solution raised the issue of substantial control of NGOs and the posting of declarations of origin for persons active in the public sphere.

“Why, then, should he know how many houses does such and such a Member of Parliament own and not know how many houses does such and such a Judge, such and such a Mayor, such and such a Secretary General of the Municipality, a journalist have are simple things. Pay attention, we all know the case of the pardoned Giorgos Trakas. If he had been obliged to post his assets this would not have been done, which was done and suddenly after his death unimaginable sums were heard, which have fallen into assets“, said Mr. Mylonakis.

“Indeed, the true declaration of where you are from is absolutely necessary, so that citizens build relationships of trust with politicians, and especially with those who hold the highest offices, such as that of the Prime Minister,” he said the special buyer of MERA25 Maria Apatzidis who added however: “However, we cannot help but notice the “elephant in the room”. Mr. Mitsotakis hid for four whole years that his wife had shares in a company based abroad, which is expressly prohibited by law. This fact raises important questions about the magnitude of these interests that pushed the Prime Minister into guilty silence, but also raises issues of credibility with the people in this critical phase of the multifaceted crisis where trust is needed more than ever».

Mrs. Apatzidis said that it should be possible to control the “where” and not only the “whether” and in order to restore the trust of the citizens towards the control bodies, to provide again that the removal of secrecy is mandatory for the completion of control.