Gov’t pledges to pay off dues by end-2020

The government has committed itself to paying off all its expired dues to third parties by the end of 2020, with the exception of some special cases, whose repayment will be completed by end-2021, according to a detailed scheduled the Finance Ministry has sent to the country’s creditors.

As one ministry official says, “at the moment we are dealing with the hard core of the overdue arrears. The central administration will have to communicate separately with each entity in order to establish the problems and the real debts and how all that will be dealt with.”

For example, the Hellenic Fund for Entrepreneurship and Development (ETEAN) appeared to have debts of 45 million euros. After an inspection by the State General Accounting Office, it was established that some 37 million euros of that money is owed to people or entities that have not appeared to collect what they are due or have not presented the necessary documents to get it. Therefore, in practice, ETEAN’s outstanding debt stands at 8 million euros.

Huge problems are also recorded in the payment of multiple pensions, as handwritten documents are required to be found for the process to continue.