Greece's laws urgently need codifying, General Inspector for Public Administration says

Rakintzis said that a scourge of excessive and overlapping laws continued to hold enterprise and private initiative "hostage" in the country and stressed that codification was necessary.

Regarding public sector corruption, the inspector reported a "slight improvement every year in the quality of inspection of disciplinary cases," so that the situation was markedly improved since he first took over 11 years ago.

In terms of disciplinary law and structures for eliminating bureaucracy, he said, Greece's public administration was making slow but steady progress.

In his report released earlier on Tuesday, Rakintzis once again found the majority of the problems in the areas of financial management, town planning, health and the environment.

He also reported that more than 2.6 million euros had not been declared, as shown by the wealth statements submitted by civil servants, and at least half othe money sent abroad had not been legally declared.