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The capture of two employees of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness with a bribe of 120,000 euro has caused the resignations of a total of 100 employees in the Private Investments Department at the Ministry. The civil servants wanted between 2% and 4% "remuneration" under the table to grant the funding for business projects in Greece approved by Europe. The European Union gave the green light to investment and the Greek state played only an intermediate role. However, those who did not want to fill the pockets of local officials did not receive the grants they were entitled to get.

The case was announced after entrepreneur Aristidis Makrou revealed that representatives of the Ministry had wanted 120,000 euro from him in 2006 in order to grant him the funding of 4.7 million euro for the construction of a resort complex in Nauplion. Makrou is an entrepreneur in the tourism sector and owns a hotel in Argolida. He says that, six years ago, representatives of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness and the Ministry of Economy wanted 70,000 euro from him to transfer to his account the financing approved for his business project.

The entrepreneur explains that the total investment for the construction of the hotel complex exceeds 27 million euro. The Ministry approved funding of nine million, which was less than the due amount, Makrou explains and adds, "We were told that it was standard practice to withhold 4% of the funding in favour of the employees of the ministry." The entrepreneur refused to grant the requested amount and filed a complaint in order to receive the full amount. As a result, the grant for the project increased from 9 to 14 million but the money was never transferred to the account of the enterprise.

The project funding was blocked for years and only at the beginning of March this year, the case has been revised and the final amount  for the construction of the hotel complex approved by the state reached 4.7 million euro. Almost six years might have passed from the corruption odyssey of Makrou, three governments have changed, but the song remains the same. The representatives of the Ministry of Development and Competitiveness asked for the same again. This time, the entrepreneur Aristidis Makoru decided to solve the matter once and for all.

At the beginning of the month, the businessman turned to the department of economic crimes at the national police but it refused to help him. He says he was almost kicked out of there. Once the economic police closed its door to him, he sought assistance from the department fighting organized crime. The police provided for him an envelope with marked money. Ministerial officials arranged a meeting near Keramikos in Athens, where the entrepreneur had to give the money to one of those responsible for the disbursement of approved funds. After the deal, the two clerks aged 60 tried to divide the bribe but were seized by police.

Over the years, he turned to various officials and institutions raising the alarm over corrupt practices in the ministry but with no success. The businessman informed the former minister of development in the government of New Democracy Yiannis Papathanasiou, who failed to put the ministry in order. Papathanasiou, in turn, claims that when he got the complaint, the entrepreneur did not give him a list of the possible culprits and therefore, he was not able to raise a criminal investigation against them.

Following the disclosure of the incident with Aristidis Makrou, another 20 cases of similar extortion by public officials have appeared. Anna Diamantapoulou, who took over the post of Minister of Development this week, has ordered the bank accounts of 57 suspected corrupt officials and related persons to be opened to verify their transactions from 2005 to date. The supervisor of public administration Leandros Rakidzis will undertake this work and the head of the tax service Yannis Diotis will cooperate in this investigation. Laridzis is clear that during the crisis, corruption has not increased but there is a jump in the number of complaints. "People are angry and have finally begun to complain," he said to Sky.

"We need to change the model to prevent similar occurrences. There should be no tolerance for those who violate their oath given to serve the people and for those close to them, who have allowed this to happen. A change is necessary to be able to bring to the fore the good employees, who are conscientious in their work and should be promoted," said Minister Diamantapoulou in connection with her decision to clear the Private Investments Department.