Public Sector Fraud in Greece


After a year’s investigation, Greek police have found 179 incidents of illegal collection of pensions, fraud which has cost the state some 13 million euros. According to the investigation, despite the fact that the rightful pensioners had passed away, their relatives continued collecting their pensions.

The cases of illegal pension collection cover the period from 1991 to 2012 and the loss to the Greek State is put at 12,864,730.26 euros. The investigation started when the Greek Ministry of Finance sent documents to the Greek Police’s internal affairs department in order to check on the situation of retired public servants who had not been recorded at the last census.

During the investigation, 102 people who had joint bank accounts with the deceased pensioners were identified, and, as they had access to the bank accounts, they had continued collecting the pensions. 59 of the 102 people have been charged with persistent fraud, and have already submitted their defense statements. In the other 77 cases, the investigation is continuing.

At present, there is no evidence to suggest that any employee of the Greek General Accounting office was involved in these cases of fraud.


  1. Fraud is fraud. Set up a payment schedule for this people top begin paying the state back.

    Putting them in jail is senseless. Naming in shaming, however, is something the Greek society never capitalizes on as in other countries. There the simple threat of having one’s name published in the media in relation to a crime is enough to deter most people.

    Here, like so many other things, the “hidden” approach is applied–defeating the whole power of a society to recognize wrong-doers and establish the deterrent of being humiliated themselves.