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The authorities in the municipality of Athens have freed from guilt the employees who are believed to have been involved in the case of little Maria, the little girl found in a Gypsy camp near Farsala.

The case has assumed serious proportions after having revealed once again the chaos that reigns in municipalities and municipal services in Greece. A typical fact is that, after the case of the blond angel, it emerged that 50 documents of civil status issued with a significant delay were found in 2011 in the municipality of Athens alone, their number in 2012 being 200 and, in the period January-October 2013, 400.

All this nonsense was supplemented by the exculpation of the officers accused of the cases in question.

It is noteworthy that, since 1993, it has been possible to declare the birth of a child in Greece only through filing an affidavit, without any other documents being required (for example, a certificate from an obstetrician).

In a statement, Athens Mayor George Kaminis states that this procedure allowed unscrupulous individuals to receive benefits or privileges, even if they had no children.

"Innocent"

"Eleftheros typos" newspaper reports that, about a year after the revelations about the case of little Maria, a competent executive commission was convened to decide the fate of the director, the head of department and the employee in the service in question. The penalties imposed are as follows: written censure for the head of department and fine for the employee to the amount of her pay for 15 days. As for the director, she is found not guilty.

Statements of the defendants

The director justified herself with the workload in the office, because, as she claimed, she had to manage services in four different buildings. She also said that she had not received such personal documents and had "full confidence" in how the employees and the head of department exercised control over the declarations. Asked about the increased number of declarations issued with a significant delay, she replied that this fact was "perfectly normal, in view of the economic crisis"!

As for the head of department, she also justified herself with the workload in the office, stating that she had no "eye contact" with all offices of the 16 employees, and that she was not informed about the problem by her subordinate. The head of department tried hard to put the blame on her subordinate, noting that the latter had a long experience whereas she herself took office just nine months before the discovery of the problem with the declarations that had been entered with delay.

Finally, the defendant employee stated that she had worked in the "Births" department since 1994 and referred to "evaluation reports that were compiled for her each year and that were excellent!" Then subsequently, she described the nightmarish situation in her office, where she was "subjected to verbal attacks by the Roma."

"The whole extended family came to submit an application and threatened me that they would complain as, according to them, I was harassing citizens by asking them every day to declare a child whereas the procedure could have been completed at once", said the employee.