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The supervisory Troika stated that Greece could not support an army of 200,000 men and insisted on cuts, but it seems that this is not the only problem.

Outrageous wastefulness due to fake fuels supplies for the army is described in the former Deputy Chairman of Parliament George Surlas’ letter to the Committee on Institutions and Transparency. Given that the army is the main supplier of diesel to the Greek police and the fire brigade, it is not difficult to guess how big the scale of the fraud is.

The analysis of the diesel, conducted in the state chemical laboratory, shows that fuels supplied to the army are mixed with water and sulphur. The levels found were respectively 67,000 mg/kg of water at permitted levels of 200 mg and 2,356 mg/kg of sulphur, the permitted level being 50.

Surprising, however, is the silence of those responsible for the fraud and for the significant profits from fuel smuggling and counterfeiting.

George Surlas states in his letter that he received the first information about the case in 2004. Since then he has raised a total of 14 questions in Parliament in order to be informed about the standards and conditions of fuel supplies for the armed forces.

All data were sent for verification to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court and the military prosecution later in January 2007 on the recommendation of the then- Minister of Defence Evangelos Meimarakis, but no reply was received.

After gathering evidence of counterfeiting, the former Deputy Chairman of the Parliament and a member of New Democracy appealed in June 2010 to the Prosecutor of the Supreme Court again who ordered the relevant authorities to investigate the matter.

With this letter to the Parliamentary Committee on Institutions and Transparency, George Surlas insists that the government, military and judicial authorities undertake the actual investigation.

The letter indicates and the severe consequences from the use of sulphur blended fuels to human health, the environment, vehicles and military equipment.

"The case of fake fuels must be finally addressed to end the shameful and terrorist acts of some tycoons who believe that they are allowed to subordinate whoever they want to their illegal interests  through the mechanisms and piles of stolen money at their disposal."

According to the deputy, state budget losses from buying fake fuels are so great that they could cover part of the debt. "If the state could collect these amounts it would not cut wages and pensions since the loss of state revenues from tax evasion exceeds the amount of 3 billion euros annually," said the lawmaker, who estimated tens of millions in losses from the supply of fake fuel today.