‘Island of the Blind' sheds light on level of corruption

Zakynthos, Greece: Even by the extravagant standards of Greek corruption, the scam uncovered by Stelios Bozikis is so brazen that it is hard to credit. Nearly 600 people on the Ionian island of Zakynthos — of which Bozikis was recently elected mayor — managed to have themselves falsely declared blind, entitling them to state benefits.

They included taxi drivers, shopkeepers and restaurant owners, farmers tending the island's patchwork of vineyards and olive groves, and a few amateur hunters, whose purported disability did not stop them shooting rabbits and birds in the rugged mountains of the interior.

Other "blind" locals have been seen playing cards and backgammon in tavernas and bars.

"Out of 650 registered blind people on the island, we estimate that at least 600 are fraudulent claims," the mayor said in his office overlooking the port of Zakynthos Town, the main settlement.

Ten times the average

That represents nearly two per cent of the island's population of 35,000 — nearly ten times the average rate of blindness in Europe. The authorities on the island had been permitting fraudulent claims for more than a decade.

"I realised when I became mayor that a lot of illegal things were taking place," said Bozikis, a lawyer who was elected last year. "I promised myself that I would tackle them, irrespective of the political cost."

The claimants were receiving monthly payments of at least €350 (Dh1,700), sometimes more depending on their age and family status. Those who supposedly needed carers received larger sums.

The mayor, a member of the socialist Pasok party, has suspended all benefit payments until it can be independently established exactly who needs a white cane.

The move was met with strong opposition, culminating in a recent council meeting that was stormed by about 50 claimants, who threw eggs and pots of yogurt at the mayor in a uniquely Greek expression of anger.

"I consider it a badge of honour," said Bozikis. "It meant that we are doing the right thing."

Known to the Venetians during the heyday of their trading empire as "the Flower of the Levant", Zakynthos is now mocked as "the Island of the Blind" by the media.

Bozikis' campaign is a microcosm of the immense problems of corruption, tax evasion and benefit fraud that Greece confronts as it tries to avoid being thrown out of the Eurozone.

It is a scourge that whoever wins the country's general election on May 6 will come under huge pressure to tackle, from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, Greece's creditors.

Coalition likely

Yet the signs are that anti-austerity parties that oppose the clampdown on public spending are gaining in the polls. At least ten parties are expected to win seats under the country's electoral system and the likelihood is that, to help Greece deliver the further cuts needed, the two traditional rivals, New Democracy and Pasok, will be forced into coalition.

No one has been more angered by the scandal than the island's 40 or so genuinely blind people.

"I am blind and these people are laughing in my face by taking allowances," said John Venardos, 50, a hotelier whose blindness is the result of a hereditary disorder.

He said the scam was symptomatic of the venality and corruption that have eaten away at Greece like a cancer.

"Corruption starts at the top — ministers are doing it, mayors do it, they all s**** the system."

— The Telegraph Group Limited, London 2012