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A loss of 7.33 million euros registered the enforcement authorities in the health sector after conducting 80 inspections last year, according to the report of the inspectorate of the healthcare and social services. Dozens of cases of abuse and suspicious transactions between suppliers and hospitals are still under ongoing investigation. Other 302 contracts between the already known to the judicial authorities company Siemens and various hospitals have been sent by the prosecutor in the court to be reviewed in the first instance.

Healthcare facilities across the country have ran afoul of the control campaign, which revealed shocking cases of waste of public funds. A publication of Imerisia mentions of fraudulent certificates from the National Center for blood donation and suspicious transactions with the reserves of the blood banks. In the public health center in the district Nikia have been discovered wrongs in the conduct of public auctions, which were not complied with basic rules of the law on government procurement. At the hospital in Tripoli, inspections have resulted in unjustified mark-ups of various goods of up to 300 percent.

The most shocking seems to be the case of the Organization for healthcare of those insured in the state sector - Piraeus. During the inspection the enforcement authorities have found false prescriptions and unreasonable written examinations in the amount of 1,67 million euros! Another case of abuse that has hurt the state with over 974 thousand euros is the one in the northeastern city Aleksandroupolis. At the local hospital have been found suspicious contracts for supply of consumables and surgical instruments. The loss only from the supply of materials needed for the treatment of respiratory tract, reaches almost 17 thousand euros. The management of the Neuro-surgery and orthopedic clinic "Ipokratis" in Thessaloniki has made a contract for the supply of orthopedic material, which was found with to be 1.5 million euros more expensive than it should be.

"There are many more serious cases and charges which we are still investigating and it is expected their results to come in soon", said the Inspector General of the healthcare Mihalos Sabatakakis. He pledged that this is only the beginning of the meeting with the heads of the largest public hospitals in the presence of the Minister Andreas Loverdos. Minister of Healthcare, in turn, stressed that on putting in order the finance of the health care facilities depends also the allocation of the fourth tranche of the aid to Greece under the Memorandum with the European countries and the International Monetary Fund.

"It is honest to tell us in time that you can not handle it (the financial consolidation-b.a.). It is dangerous to give us false information", warned the hospital managers Andreas Loverdos. Mihalos Sabatakakis in turn complained that last year he had a case where after an inspection being carried out in a hospital a lack of one million euro was found. Although the hospital management was informed about the situation, at the second inspection it turned out that the losses from the same source not only have not diminished, but they have even increased. The inaction of the hospital management resulted in 2.5 million loss for the state.

Of these examples it becomes clear how the healthcare system in Greece has earned the nickname the "black hole" of the state budget, by registering a deficit of over six billion euros a year. No better is also the situation in the social security funds. Besides the known problems with the financial management of the insurance funds, a new threat came also with the unemployment in the new year.

With its increase as a result of the economic recession and the closure of thousands of small and medium size companies comes also the shortage of revenue in the social security system. This year its deficit will increase by 1.3 billion euros, 400 million of which will be at the expense of the Employment Agency and Labour Offices (OAED).

Estimates predict that in 2011 the number of unemployed in Greece will increase by another 100 thousand people. Some of the consequences are that revenues in the largest social insurance fund in the country (IKA) will lose as a result about 600 million in revenues. Another 200 million euros in revenue will disappear from the health and pension funds of freelance employees if the expectations of local economists prove to be correct and 50 thousand enterprises will close down their business in 2011.