Athens municipal registry check reveals hundreds of irregularities

The request for inspections was placed jointly by mayor of Athens Giorgos Kaminis and the inspector general of the civil service inspection agency. As concerns the 545 illegal registrations (2 in 2011, 163 to 2012, and 380 by October 2012) it was ascertained that the registry had issued birth certificates without the requisite actions to verify actual events and data.

In a number of cases parents and witnesses had registered births that had allegedly taken place even 17 years before the registration. In other case parents and witnesses tendered revised statements of births of children they had “forgotten” to register at the time of the original registration. In some instances parents registered children showing time between births lower than gestation times.

There were also cases of addresses outside the Athens municipality, thus wrongly registered, while other addresses were simply fictitious or belonged to business establishments.

Finally, in the vast majority of cases those registering births were not citizens of Athens but of other municipalities.

The Civil Service Inspection Agency has asked the mayor to proceed with disciplinary action against the relevant municipal employees, while also sending the relevant case file to the prosecutors and police. The Agency also made the requisite proposals to the municipality to revamp registry services.