The ISI statement over the prosecution of Mr Andreas Georgiou

Statement on the prosecution of the President and two managers of the Hellenic Statistical Authority, ELSTAT

The International Statistical Institute (ISI) is a scientific society with more than 5,000 members worldwide and a network that include numerous government agencies, international organisations, statistical associations and groups around the world. The undersigned ISI representatives are making this statement to express their profound disappointment and serious concern over the prosecution of Mr Andreas Georgiou, President of the Hellenic Statistical Authority (ELSTAT) and two of his ELSTAT Managers. The charges against Mr Georgiou and two of his Managers of exaggerating the estimates of Greek government deficit and debt for the year 2009 are fanciful and not consistent with the facts. Mr Georgiou was appointed by the Greek Parliament in 2010 to help with the production of reliable Greek statistics. He has a background with the IMF and is fully aware of the importance of the integrity and trust in official statistics to the effective governance of countries. The public finance problems of Greece were due in part to poor and erroneous statistics over a number of years which meant that the seriousness of the situation was not addressed earlier with less austere economic and social policy adjustments. The poor state of Greek public finance statistics before 2010 is spelled out in a Report on the Greek Government Deficit and Debt Statistics, published by the European Commission in January

2010.

Assisted by Eurostat, the statistical authority of the European Union, Mr Georgiou and his team at ELSTAT went about their work to recompile Greek public finance statistics in accordance with the standards of the EU. Eurostat monitored this work and endorsed that it conformed with EU rules and standards with which Greece as a member of the EU is obliged to comply. Eurostat has published the Greek public finance statistics compiled by Mr Georgiou and his team without reservation biannually for five consecutive times. In a recent public announcement the Director General of Eurostat said that Mr Georgiou retains his full confidence. Further the Director General emphasized that Eurostat refutes allegations that the deficit of 2009 was over-estimated or that any pressure was put on ELSTAT to falsify data.

We believe there is absolutely no merit to the charges brought against Mr Andreas Georgiou and his two ELSTAT colleagues. If they were to proceed it would not only be harmful for these statisticians. It would also undermine both the professional independence of official statistics in Greece in the long term and international confidence in Greek statistics and the Greek government and institutions.

We call on the Greek institutions to ensure the integrity, independence and professionalism of Greek statistics and abstain from further prosecution of the ELSAT President.

Signatures:

ISI President

Jae C Lee

Chair ISI Advisory Board on Ethics

Dennis Trewin

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