Head of Greece’s privatizations agency fired

(Vatican Radio) The head of Greece’s privatizations agency was sacked without warning yesterday after taking a private plane ride with a leading businessman who bought state assets.

Stelios Stavridis was unceremoniously sacked – and at the height of the holiday season – on the orders of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras when he heard of the favour that Stavridis allegedly accepted from private interests. Most people here in Athens believe that privatizations were just not proceeding quickly enough, and that Samaras found the excuse he needed to ease him out.

An official announcement said that the finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, asked for Stavridis’s resignation, apparently to forestall a media scandal.

The privatizations agency recently sold off one-third of the lucrative Greek state gaming business. Stavridis’s mistake was that he accepted a holiday lift in a private plane belonging to the buyer, suggesting a conflict of interest. Stavridis himself, in his resignation statement, avoided any criticism of Samaras.

The sacking of the privatizations boss shows how sensitive Samaras is to any suggestion of cronyism in the state mechanism. He also was impatient with the slow pace of privatizations, which has been criticized by Greece’s creditors. The Troika of creditors is due here in Athens again next month, and Samaras is anxious to speed up reforms so that the bailout money can keep coming in.

This week Samaras is going to ratchet up the pressure on his ministers for results in cost cutting and raising tax revenues, in a tough two weeks before the Troika gets here. Listen to John Carr's report