Blame it on Chatzipetris…

It is a well known scandal but who will point the finger at politicians?

The inability of the parliamentary inquiry commission, investigating the Siemens scandal, to find those Greek politicians who received money through the "black" funds of the German company, is causing vast delays in drawing a conclusion and in particular the essential part, which includes the findings and the proposal for the citation of specific former ministers in reference to a preliminary investigation.

The data collected during the 10 months of the investigation by the committee members, may lead to political liability of several former government officials, but it is insufficient for the charging with criminal offenses.

The only sure thing is that the outcome will focus on those politicians who signed or amended contracts with Siemens and gave their consent to receiving projects from 1998 to 2007.

Therefore, under these circumstances, the members of PASOK who are in the committee and make up the majority, are asked to swim in deep waters because the MPs of the other parties are not willing to take the first step and talk about penal liabilities of former ministers.

In further detail ND, through its spokesperson Kostas Tzavaras, says that it’s seeking a mutual finding where the actual facts and political liability will be recorded. When asked whether they will suggest certain persons for the pre-investigation committee the answer was that not only are they not constitutionally obliged but it would be against the law to do so. They are actually throwing the ball to the parliamentary procedures following the deposition of the finding.

Moreover, the minor opposition parties insist on keeping their cards closed, refusing to open the nomenclature "dance" if they’re not given a list of certain names from the committee chairman Mr Sifis Valyrakis.

The scenarios

Reasonably then the question arises as to PASOK’s intentions. The investigated scenarios and their difficulties are:

- To reach a conclusion with a list of certain former ND ministers, asking for their citation. But they know that there will be another list from the opposition parties, and as their list gets bigger so will this one with the names of former or current “comrades”. Also, they’re concerned about the acceptance of such a conclusion by the other members of Parliament and especially of PASOK since the Vatopedi fiasco is still fresh.

- The second scenario wants PASOK and ND reaching a common conclusion accepting «Tzavaras’ line». They will accept the scandal but won’t talk about the people actually accountable. They will refer to liability but will not address evidence of penal involvement of former ministers.

If such a development occurs, they know that the reaction of the public will be wrathful as the latter will assume that the committee was nothing more than a whitewashing of the liability of the perpetrators.

The setting, however, will clear next week, when the discussion about the actual facts will end and decision time will begin. Which is to say, who is responsible.