Resignation of GSIS Connected to Delay of Tax Evaders List?

The resignation of Diomidis Spinellis from his post as secretary-general of the General Secretariat of Information Systems (GSIS) -on October 17- has sparked rumors of infighting at the Greek Ministry of Finance over the thorny issue of combating tax evasion. While in normal circumstances the resignation of a state employee would not be newsworthy, Spinellis' decision to quit is because the publication of these so-called lists has been delayed for too many months now amid allegations that the government was either trying to block their release and at the same time meddling with their content for political reasons. (Or rather to protect their campaign contributors)

As one of Greece’s foremost experts in software design for business applications and data security, Spinellis was apparently put in charge of developing computer programs for the detection of tax evasion through the cross-referencing and correlation of disparate evidence from public databases in order to track down private disposable income or property hitherto hidden from income tax declarations.

Three days before he submitted his resignation, Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said that the ministry would release the lists of Greece’s major tax evaders in the week to come (meaning this week) and debtors owing the state over 150,000 euros each in confirmed tax arrears. (Yeah Right...)

Spinellis, a professor in the department of management science and technology at the Athens University of Economics and Business (AUEB), director of AUEB’s Information Systems Technology Laboratory (ISTLab) as well as the lab's Software Engineering and Security (Sense) group, said he was resigning for personal reasons.