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The activity of at least 600 non-governmental organizations in Greece formed in the last 15 years would be subject to investigation, said the chief prosecutor Janis Sakelariou. Complaints from individuals and a series of publications provoked the public attention and prosecutor number one in Greece ordered full revision of the funding and use of state or European granted funds.

MPs from the parliamentary committee on institutions and transparency Thanassis Tsouras from PASOK and Yiannis Tragakis from New Democracy announced the data from the NGOs activities survey and they have proved to be more than controversial. After years of public and private granting of projects of various NGOs, the Greek justice decided to ‘dig’ deeper to seek where they had buried the money. Shockingly it was found out that their number in the country varies between 20-30 thousands, and that there are 4500 NGOs all over Greece only in behalf of immigrants, gender equality and drug addicts.

An example of incredible causes supported over the years besides the familiar social problems is the program for growing tomatoes in the Ivory Coast in Africa for which the relevant NGO received two million drachmas or about 700,000 euros more than ten years ago. Another similar organization received eight million drachmas to develop a broadcasting station in Cuba! The Ministry of Interior granted 68 million euros to various NGOs in the period 1996-2004.
  
As Elefterotipia newspaper jokingly notes, actually if NGOs really helped the needy (in the name of whom they were created), then neither needy, nor people in distress would remain in Greece. So, this means that there is one pharmacy per every 1000 people in Greece but three NGOs. The reality is different and the true results of their activities are hardly noticeable.

Gaps in the legislation on the NGOs activities as well as poor coordination and registration, combined with a lack of transparency in eligibility criteria make these public initiatives extremely suspicious, they said from the parliamentary committee.

The Deputy Foreign Minister Spyros Kouvelis said that the new bill on the activities of voluntary organizations, which includes NGOs, will be drafted by April this year. The state will tighten supervision over the NGOs activities and funding and will try to prevent the possibility of using them to "drain off" money from EU funds or donors.

The announcement of the parliamentary committee on institutions and transparency research data provoked the rapid response of the government spokesman George Petalotis. He said that many people would lose their sleep after the prosecutor's investigation, suggesting that the previous government of New Democracy was involved in the funding of NGOs of dubious fruitless activity.