ATHENS: Greek tax collectors are trying to salvage their reputations amid accusations that their corrupt practices and gross incompetence played a key role in destroying the country's economy.
Government experts charged with rescuing Greece's desperate public finances have said tax collectors not only tolerate evasion, but often take bribes from tax transgressors in exchange for lighter penalties.
Greece, under immense pressure from its European creditors, has launched a massive project to restructure the tax collection system, but a key union in the sector is fighting the perception that its workers are the problem.
The POE-DOY tax office employees union filed a complaint with Greek prosecutors earlier this month against individuals it claims have made reckless corruption allegations against its members.
The complaint targets Diomidis Spinellis, the former IT chief at the POE-DOY finance ministry and Nikos Lekkas, chief auditor at Greece's financial crimes unit, known as SDOE.
The public duel between the collectors' union and the anti-corruption officials began a month ago, during a conference called "Tax evasion and social justice."
Corrupt taxmen had long been a taboo subject in Greece, but Spinellis and Lekkas tried to clearly and quantifiably detail the systemic fraud and the extent of the bribe taking.
"We are not going to tolerate this slander. If there are specific criticisms, they can be judged within the existing disciplinary institution," said union boss Charalambos Nikolakopoulos.
"All tax collectors are not corrupt. We are defending their honour and the prestige of the sector," he added.
Spinellis has created a website aimed at raising fraud awareness and gathering taxpayers' corruption complaints.
He said the objective is to describe "the things that are already largely known" and were revealed in a reports released by Greece's government ombudsman and the corruption watchdog Transparency International.
"The statistics show there are difficulties in boosting government revenue and (installing) proper tax collection. Corruption is one of the key problems," Spinellis added, while also assigning blame to Greece's cumbersome bureaucracy.
He recently resigned from the finance ministry and is currently working in academia, but remains critical of the entrenched resistance to change among tax collection officials.
To force through much-needed reforms, Greece shouldn't be afraid of conflict, he argued: "We can't make omelettes without breaking some eggs."
Facing gross tax evasion that costs the country an estimated 45 billion euros ($60 billion) per year, Greece, under pressure from its creditors, is aggressively trying to reform the sector.
Among the proposed changes is a plan to reduce the number of tax offices from 300 to 70.
But some are sceptical about the prospects for improvement and argue that the restructuring process has sparked added confusion.
"At the moment, there is chaos in the tax collection offices. The taxpayers don't know who to go to if there is a dispute because of the ongoing fusion," said Elsa Zabeta, head of Greece's accountants union.
"The series of reforms concerning taxation are only a pretext to do nothing," she charged.
"The laws against tax evasion exist but are only applied in a selective manner. The big fish always go free."