Greece is among the countries that made minimal progress against money laundering and took no new measures to strengthen its anti-corruption authorities. The above is included in the last report of FATF (Financial Action Task Force), a working team within OECD. Members of FATF were in Athens recently in order to review their 2007 report.

On Monday, the World Bank also reported that Greece's standing in the Bank's Governance Indicator has deteriorated. Moreover, according to Transparency International, Greece holds the last (27th) place in Europe with 4.6 points in matters of Transparency and the 56th internationally.

Word Bank measure six broad dimensions of governance, including:

- Voice and Accountability: the extent to which a country's citizens are able to participate in selecting their government, as well as freedom of expression, association, and the press.

- Political Stability and Absence of Violence: the likelihood that the government will be destabilized by unconstitutional or violent means,

including terrorism.

- Government Effectiveness: the quality of public services, the capacity of the civil service and its independence from political pressures; the quality of policy formulation

-Regulatory Quality: the ability of the government to provide sound policies and regulations that enable and promote private sector development

-Rule of Law: the extent to which agents have confidence in and abide by the rules of society, including the quality of property rights, the police, and the courts, as well as the risk of crime.

-Control of Corruption: the extent to which public power is exercised for private gain, including both petty and grand forms of corruption, as well as elite "capture" of the state

On Tuesday, the head of the public sector watchdog Leandros Rakintzis, in its last report, reported that corruption reigns in the National Health System (NHS), the local administration authorities (OTA) and the urban planning agency.

Source: Reporter.gr