Greece’s National Transparency Authority (NTA) has identified a wide range of legal, administrative and safety violations across public and private entities, including problems at kindergartens, children’s camps and playgrounds.
The findings are detailed in a 104-page report covering primarily inspections carried out in 2025. The report also identifies cases involving public procurement, transportation inspections, health services, nonprofit organizations and workplace conduct.
The authority’s investigations have already resulted in disciplinary accountability proceedings involving 18 mayors, six heads of general directorates, 45 department directors, 40 heads of service sections, 51 elected local government officials and 91 state employees.
The NTA incorporates five major inspection bodies overseeing public services.
More than 8,000 complaints handled
Over the past year, the NTA handled 8,152 complaints, including 2,754 submitted to its central services.
Of those central-service complaints, 944, or 34.28%, concerned local government organizations, while 407, or 14.77%, involved health and welfare issues. Another 380 concerned insurance, social solidarity and labor relations.
The authority also investigated 368 doctors and nursing staff, 353 municipal employees, 236 teachers, 217 uniformed personnel, 210 elected officials, 78 ministry employees and 38 prison employees.
The report also records a wide range of disciplinary and criminal proceedings during the year. These included:
- 65 summonses for public employees to provide explanations
- 1,491 referrals to disciplinary councils
- 29 orders for preliminary disciplinary investigations
- 102 orders for sworn administrative investigations
- 785 criminal prosecutions
- 10 indictments
- 88 judicial orders
- 429 criminal rulings
- 39 suspensions from duty
- 219 decisions placing employees on leave
- 17 dismissals of employees
- Two decisions removing elected officials from office
Safety problems at children’s camps
Inspections of children’s camps found multiple violations at some facilities.
These included improperly issued operating licenses, inadequate equipment and insufficiently trained staff, failure to maintain the required staff-to-camper ratio, inadequately equipped and understaffed medical facilities, incomplete food and water safety records, uncertified sports equipment, and a lack of fencing and firebreaks along the entire camp perimeter.
Kindergarten found lacking safety approvals
Inspectors also found significant problems at a kindergarten.
The findings included failure to meet building suitability criteria, construction and modification work carried out in the building and its yard without the required approvals, failure to approve the building’s active fire-protection study and failure to obtain a fire-safety certificate.
The report also includes findings concerning local government contracting.
In one municipality, inspectors found that the mayor, deputy mayors and municipal councilors had made verbal assignments of work, which subsequently led to court rulings awarding a total of approximately €200,000.
In another case, work on a project began before the required negotiation procedure had been conducted and before a written contract had been signed.
Concerns over direct government contracts
A regional ministry service was also found to have shortcomings in its handling of direct contracts.
According to the report, inspectors identified a lack of market research for the direct contracts examined, as well as insufficient documentation of the urgency and necessity cited as grounds for awarding the contracts directly.
The report also details findings from an inspection of a nonprofit organization, now operating as a civil nonprofit company.
Among the findings were false or inaccurate attendance records, monthly activity logs and progress reports concerning the presence and home visits of a psychiatrist working as part of an interdisciplinary team. Inspectors also found inadequate record-keeping and documentation, along with other violations.
The findings form part of the NTA’s broader assessment of compliance and oversight across Greece’s public sector and other organizations subject to its inspections.
