Fakelaki
Fakelaki ( Greek φακελάκι , also Fakellaki , φακελλάκι , 'small envelope') is a common name in Greece for a certain form of corruption . The recipient is given a discreet amount of money in an envelope in order to achieve certain advantages or even to be heard in the first place. To draw attention to the figurative sense, the word is sometimes put in quotation marks.
Fakelakia are said to be widespread in the Greek health care system : the doctor is bribed by the patient to speed up or improve treatment. Fakelakia should also be served in other parts of Greek public life, for example at authorities to speed up administrative processes (e.g. for building applications ), for technical vehicle surveillance or for driving license tests.
In Greece, the bad habit of the fakelaki has been publicly criticized for years. Individual cases are also reported in which corrupt recipients were severely punished. Transparency International Greece estimated that in 2009 Greek private individuals paid EUR 787 million in bribes. That would be the equivalent of EUR 72.87 per capita per year for 10.8 million inhabitants. For 2010, the total amount of bribes from Transparency International was estimated at 632 million euros and in 2011 at 554 million euros, with the economic crisis being seen as the cause of the decline.
The fakelaki is just one of several forms of corruption in Greece; Nevertheless, the term became a topos , especially in German-language media in publications about the causes of the Greek financial crisis, which has been perceived since 2009 , while the term Rousfeti ( ρουσφέτι from Turkish rüşvet , bribery money) , which is just as common in Greece but is phonetically less distinctive , is hardly mentioned. In 2010, the President of the Greek Parliament Filippos Petsalnikos criticized this reporting as exaggerated and stated that he had never given a fakelaki and would never do so out of conviction.
The Greek police have set up a hotline where cases of this form of corruption can be reported. Bribes are countered with marked banknotes for evidence purposes. You can also anonymously report tax violations , illegal acts by government officials and corruption in the general public sector via the new nationwide number 11012 or at fpccu@hellenicpoIice.gr .
At present (as of 2012) a law is being drawn up that will impose a penalty of 50 times the amount on the recipient of bribes in addition to the criminal conviction. Furthermore, cases of bribery allegations in court should be preferred.
On the internet platform edosafakelaki (“I gave Fakelaki”), initiated by Christina Tremonti, it can be reported where and when to whom bribes or bribes were paid. This website has become a real movement. Almost 1,500 reports were listed within a short period of time, while the Fakelaki sum under discussion was over five million euros.
Related topics
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ethnos: [1] ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kathimerini: Patient blogs hospital graft from May 30, 2007
- ↑ spiegel.de: Corruption in Greece: A fakelaki full of notes from March 10, 2010
- ↑ Kathimerini of November 23, 2001: "If you have no relationships, you give Fakelaki" (Greek) archive link ( memento of the original from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kathimerini of March 13, 2004: "Residence permits ... with Fakelaki" (Greek) archive link ( memento of the original from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Kathimerini of January 13, 2007: "200 million euros in Fakelakia" (Greek) archive link ( memento of the original from October 29, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ To Vima: The secretaries also take “Fakelaki” (Greek) from February 17, 2008
- ↑ Eleftherotypia: The Fakelaki is alive - health is in a coma (Greek) ( Memento from April 20, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) from January 9, 2009
- ↑ ant1online.gr: Greece World Champion in Fakelaki (Greek) ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated November 14, 2008
- ↑ athina984.gr In Serres in 2008 a doctor was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment because he demanded 400 euros for a treatment (Greek) ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. dated September 18, 2008
- ↑ zeit.de: Turning away from the Fakelaki on May 6, 2010
- ↑ Athens News, April 3, 2012; Petty corruption in (the) crisis (English) ( Memento of the original June 9, 2012 at the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link is automatically inserted and not yet tested. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ spiegel.de: The power of the Fakelaki from December 28, 2009
- ↑ Der Standard: Lots of Fakelaki in Greece from February 11, 2010
- ↑ mainpost.de: With a Fakelaki everything works from March 2nd, 2010
- ↑ 20min.ch: The envelope under the table from March 2, 2010
- ↑ wdr.de: Problem "Fakelaki" ( Memento from May 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) from March 3, 2010
- ↑ radio-kreta.de: Caricature on the topic of March 14, 2010
- ↑ Γεώργιος Μπαμπινιώτης (Georgios Babiniotis): Λεξικό της Νέας Ελληνικής Γλώσσας (Lexicon of the Modern Greek Language) . Β 'Έκδοση edition. Κέντρο Λεξικολογίας, 2005, ISBN 960-86190-1-7 , p. 1555 .
- ↑ focus.de: Did you give Fakelaki? dated March 8, 2010
- ↑ Telephone number 210-8779700
- ↑ griechenland-blog.de: Hotline for reporting tax offenses and corruption in Greece from August 4, 2011
- ↑ focus.de: [2] from 22/08/2012
- ↑ Website edosafakelaki.org
- ↑ from October 7, 2012 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Greece newspaper of January 16, 2012 p. 9
Web links
- edosafakelaki "I gave fakelaki," a website for displaying fakelaki payments