A police press conference was held yesterday in order to provide further information on the emergent NGO scandal, which cost the State about 9 million euros. According to the police, active and retired state officials are implicated in the scandal.
The police revealed that the NGO would hire foreign minesweepers, who would then return about 20%-30% of their wages as a donation to the NGO, which the NGO in turn did not document as obligated, ensuring that it could receive further funding.
During the presentation, the police explained that the NGO managed to overcome a number of obstacles in to receive the state funding, despite the great number of informalities. This further proves the implication of high ranking officials, such ambassadors, in the scandal. So far the police has detained the NGO’s president Konstantinos Tzevelekos and a further seven people are thought to be involved.
Amongst the suspects in the scandal is the former Prime Minister Giorgos Papandreou’s associate Alex Rontos, who appears to have played a prominent role in the scandal. Mr. Papandreou quickly issued a statement claiming that Mr. Rontos was unfairly being targeted in order to get to him and expressed his hope that the scandal would not tarnish the reputation of NGOs or curb volunteerism.
Mr. Rontos expressed his “surprise” to the daily Ethnos newspaper, claiming that he was never summoned by the authorities to testify on the case and that he observed all provisions, despite being «problematic and incomplete”. Mr. Rontos also claimed that he had repeatedly asked for greater transparency with NGOs, to no avail.
