Greece’s public procurement sector suffers from widespread and high corruption risks. Companies indicate that bribes and irregular payments are very common in processes of awarding public contracts (GCR 2015-2016). Businesses also indicate that favoritism in decisions of government officials and diversion of public funds are both very common (GCR 2017-2018). Almost three-quarters of surveyed companies perceive public procurement managed by national authorities to be corrupt, while almost four out of five companies believe that procurement managed by local authorities is corrupt (Flash Eurobarometer 2017). Slightly more than half of all companies indicate they believe that corruption has kept them from winning a public tender contract in the last three years (Flash Eurobarometer 2017). The most common reasons cited for this were: the criteria seemed to be tailor-made for certain participants (20 percent), collusive bidding (19 percent), the deal appeared done before the call for tender was published (17 percent) (Flash Eurobarometer 2017). More than half of Greeks perceive officials awarding tenders as corrupt (Eurobarometer 2017). The evaluation of bids is not transparent and is subject to political influence (ICS 2017).
The Greek Minister of State for Combating Corruption, Panagiotis Nikoloudis, recently found that all contracts concluded between the Greek state and companies included kickbacks amounting to 2-2.5 percent of the total contract. Public officials received commissions of up to 4 percent of the amount of the contract in dealings involving the purchase of weaponry (Greek Reporter, Apr. 2015). In one corruption case in 2010, ex-transport minister Tasos Mantelis admitted to accepting EUR 230,000 in bribes from the German group Siemens. Mantelis received a three-year suspended sentence. This year, new investigations were launched, leading to 19 former executives of the German engineering group Siemens, among 60 other suspects, being investigated for bribery of several officials within the Greek government, with a total of USD 78 million in return for obtaining lucrative contracts. The US-based CorpWatch described the case as ‘the greatest corporate scandal in Greece’s post-war history’ (Business Insider UK, Aug. 2015). Greece’s former transport minister, Tassos Mantelis, was found guilty in 2017 of accepting approximately USD 270,000 in bribes from Siemens via a third party (OCCRP, Jul. 2017).
Companies are recommended to use a specialised public procurement due diligence tool to help mitigate the corruption risks associated with public procurement in Greece.