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"To Vima" newspaper journalist Zois Tsolis told about his meeting with the representative of the International Monetary Fund in Greece Bob Traa, after a publication in the same newspaper regarding appointing people in the public sector, which caused a storm of reactions.

“Dear Mr. Tsolis. We read your article about the appointments in the public sector entitled, "Who confused the accounts in the memorandum" published on June 24. The Head of the International Monetary Fund in Athens Bob Traa would be happy if you went to his office to discuss this issue and its coverage."

The Sunday report gave data regarding the appointments in the public sector for the period 2010 - 2011 and regarding the ministers from the former cabinet who, despite the restrictions and the situation in the country, had increased its number of their employees.

With this e-mail, which I received on Tuesday, June 26, a real adventure started, revealing the role and authority, which the International Monetary Fund has exercised over the last two years in Greece.

I accepted the invitation of the Dutch representative of the International Monetary Fund, which was on Wednesday at 5.30 pm and I found myself in the building of the Bank of Greece, on 3 "Amerikis" street, where the International Monetary Fund is accommodated on the 8^th floor.

After the personal belongings check at the entrance, the building security announced our arrival in the upstairs office. Traa’s Greek secretary came down to the ground level, accompanied me to the 8th floor and with an electronic key opened the door, behind which stood the Permanent Representative of the International Monetary Fund.

After she “submitted” me to the Greek economist in the IMF, who had sent the e-mail, I was taken down the corridor, to the boardroom, which had a long table in the middle.

I introduced myself and we sat down...

The Dutchman sat in the centre, his assistants were sitting on both sides of him and I was sitting across from him. The Greek, who is involved as an attendant in the technical missions of the International Monetary Fund, sat next to me, ready to help.

"Where did you find this document?"

The Dutchman was seething inside, you could tell by the colour of his face. He was browsing through the papers in front of him, reading the English translation of the article and the report published by "To Vima" newspaper.

It seems he was trying to restrain himself. The first thing he managed to say was:

- Where did you find this document?

- Asking a journalist the wrong question, was my answer. Every journalist who respects himself and others would give such a response.

- This report is mine, who gave it to you? - continued the little Dutchman.

Perhaps at this point I should have left. I thought about it, I hesitated, something prevented me from doing so, maybe it was the journalistic curiosity about how far this whole thing could go...

The Dutchman, playing the role of an investigator continued with the persistent questions:

- How did you conduct the study? Where did you find the report? Where did you find the information about the 2010 appointments?

The atmosphere became more severe. I changed strategy and started a counter-attack:

- You have been coming to Greece for the last 10 years and you still do not know what is happening. Not when you were a reviewer, not even now. You have increased taxes for two years now, you have cut salaries and pensions and wage costs are not decreasing...

He gave me an icy look...

It was clear that the Dutchman neither wanted to look into the reports, nor to recognize the data on the budgets from 2009 until today, revealing that the appointments in the public sector have never stopped.

It seems that he did not even want to hear that with the failure of the policy pursued in the country and with the wave of retirements, which was followed by turning to the International Monetary Fund and the memorandum, the state is paying more people than before (either as hired employees or as “laid off" pensioners). The present Greek assistants lost their words from the way the conversation turned out.

I continued:

- In this report we are interested in the overall picture. Why did the memorandum fail, what mistake was made and why are we paying without any results?

He was going through his papers and asking:

- Why do you mention the names of ministers, we have not talked about any minister, they are our collaborators...

When I indicated that the figures in his report show the specific mistake, he exploded:

- We will not talk to "Το Vima" anymore. We thought you were an official newspaper of PASOK. We have other newspapers, which accurately deliver our data.

- Again, you are mistaken, I said. - "Το Vima" is the largest newspaper in the country, and it is not a semi-official publication of any party.

The meeting ended.

We stood up and did not give each other our hands, neither he nor I. However, I asked him:

- Really, how many appointments were made during those two years?

He did not want to answer but still he said:

In any case they are not 70,000.

They might be 60,000. Maybe we will never know the truth. The report, which we revealed, was also a document from the negotiations with the last government, for which Bob Traa was not able to notify his superiors and νοτ even the European Commission.

After the storm caused by the revelations of "Το Vima" regarding the appointments made, the only data that a person can trust are the data of the United Payment Authority according to which the number of civil servants has increased to 712,000 in early April. Bob Traa’s report states that in December 2011 the number of employees in the public sector was 668,035, down from 692,301 people in December 2010, while during the year 40,025 people were retired, added to 53,000 people from the previous year. The total number of pensioners in the public sector is 431,000.

From behind the scenes – to the scene

Bob Traa comes out from behind the scenes on stage for the second time. The first time was with the famous letter for cancellation of the 13th and 14th salary and the changes in labour relations. Then the letter was revealed by "To Vima" and "Ta Nea" newspapers, which surprised even the European Commission, which denied the existence of the letter, because obviously it was not notified by the International Monetary Fund. As we all remember, back then Bob Traa proposed 9 “fire” measures for employees in the private sector, including reducing the minimum wage, the cancellation of the 13th and 14th salary, which ultimately did not happen.

These measures destroyed the labour law. Back then trade unions and left parties accused Traa of using "helpful" Greek lawyers and representatives of specific professions in order to find those places in the Greek labour laws, which according to them must be removed and to change the situation on the labour market.

Everyone knew that these measures would affect demand and prolong the recession, as actually happened...

"Persona non grata" in Ecuador

Since October 2010, when Bob Traa arrived in Athens as a representative of the International Monetary Fund, "To Vima" searched his past and found that he had been declared as "persona non grata" in Ecuador. In the capital Quito, people remember him very well. And not in a good way. As Yvonne Llanes, a member of the Accion Ecologica organization, told "To Vima" together with other organizations in 2003 they formally requested by letter to the Police Chief of the Province Pichincha the arrest and extradition of Traa with the accusation that he had violated immigration law.

"It was requested for him to be extradited from Ecuador "for the unauthorized use of his capacity as a guest of the country, and for interfering in the decisions of national authorities, in order to take measures affecting state interests and national security"."

Back then Bob Traa was pressing the Government of Ecuador to use 100 percent of the revenues from a major new oil pipeline, in order to reduce government debt at the expense of public health and education.