Logo International Association for Official Statistics

Improving Official Statistics

80 Former Chief Statisticians Condemn Prosecution of Andreas Georgiou

Statement in Support for Andreas Georgiou

Andreas2

On 16 May 2018, the Greek Supreme Court annulled Andreas Georgiou’s acquittal by the Appeals Court Council for the alleged felony crime of inflating the 2009 fiscal deficit figures and causing “extraordinary” damage to the Greek economy, which according to the charges amounted to 171 billion euro (about 200 billion USD). If convicted of the alleged crime, Andreas Georgiou can be punished with life in prison. 

 This is the second time the Supreme Court has annulled an acquittal decision of the Appeals Court Council, which is quite extraordinary in itself and, in the view of many legal experts, unprecedented. Furthermore, before the initial acquittal in 2015-16, there were two proposals for acquittal, by an Investigating Judge (in 2013) and by a Prosecutor (in 2014), that also were not accepted. It is therefore extremely troubling that the Supreme Court continues to dismiss the considered verdicts and judgements of its competent courts and investigators.  It is all the more so since the fiscal deficit statistics at issue, and the methodology underpinning them, have been repeatedly validated by Eurostat as fully conforming to the highest harmonised statistical standards set for the production of these statistics throughout the European Union. 

Indeed, the methodology and figures are also accepted by the Greek Authorities and have been consistently used by successive Greek Governments since 2011 in requesting international financial assistance. Actually, the same methodology and figures are being used these days for requesting the final disbursement of about 12 billion euro to Greece under the final stage of a bailout that since 2010 has amounted to over 270 billion euro. The same methodology and figures are also currently being used by Greece to ask for significant debt relief for the debt incurred under this largest bailout in history.  

The EU Commission, the ECB and the IMF, as funding partners, have also fully accepted the figures as the basis for providing assistance since the end of 2010, for considering debt relief to Greece, and for monitoring the performance of the Greek economy.  

Commentators are increasingly stating openly that political factors are driving this prolonged prosecution of Andreas Georgiou to serve interests of political forces within Greece and that it will be maintained until the “right” decision is achieved. Such perceptions are very damaging for the Greek judicial system and for Greece in general, its democracy and its hoped for economic recovery.

Along with Andreas, two of his former work colleagues are also facing a similar situation. For all of them, this is a gross abuse of their human rights. This situation, which has dragged on since 2011, has caused them and their families considerable stress when they were simply doing their job with the integrity expected of senior official statisticians. We are advised that it is likely to be another 1-2 years before there is even a decision whether they will have to face an open trial. 

The relentless prosecution of Greek official statisticians for actually following European statistical law and international statistical principles cannot but have a very damaging effect on the capacity of current and future official statisticians in Greece to produce reliable official statistics with independence and impartiality.   

For all the above reasons, the international statistical community continues to support Andreas Georgiou and his colleagues. We will not resile from that support. As past leaders of the statistical community we join others, including many Nobel Laureates, in calling upon the Greek State to stop this injustice.

We also call on the European and international partners of the Greek Government, who are reliant on accurate deficit and debt statistics, to take whatever steps are necessary to address the fundamental contradiction of providing for their assistance to Greece on the basis of statistics that are repeatedly challenged at the highest level of the Greek Judiciary. 

Media covering note: 80 Former Chief Statisticians Condemn Prosecution of Andreas Georgiou

SIGNED BY 

Katharine G Abraham

     Former Commissioner of US Bureau of Labor Statistics and Director of the Maryland Centre for Economics and Policy

Tomas Africa

     Former Administrator, Philippine National Statistics Office and Director of the Statistical Institute for Asia and the Pacific

Masato Aida

     Former Director General Statistics Bureau of Japan and Vice Chair of the UN Statistical Commission

Ola Awad

     Former President International Association for Official Statistics, President Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics

Richard Alldritt

     Former Director General for Regulation, UK Statistics Authority

Vince Barraba

     Former Head of the US Census Bureau

Misha Belkindas

     Managing Director, ODW Consulting and former Manager Development Data Group, World Bank

Luigi Biggeri

     Emeritus Professor of economic statistics at the University of Florence (Italy) and former Vice-president of International Statistical Institute (ISI), President of International Association of Survey Statisticians, President of Italian Statistical Society and President of Istat, the National Statistical Institute of Italy

Jean-Louis Bodin

     Inspecteur Général de l’INSEE Honoraire, former ISI President, former IAOS President and Adviser of the President of the French Statistical Society for human rights and scientific freedom issues

Marie Bohata

     Former Deputy Director General Eurostat, Senior Researcher at Economics Institute, Academy of Sciences, Czech Republic and Chair of the Society for Ethics in Economics, Business and Administration, Czech Republic.

Heinrich Brüngger

     Former Director, Statistics Division,United Nations Economic Commission for Europe

Jack Buckley

     Senior Vice-President American Institute for Research

Gary Carusu

     Former Administrator, US Energy Information Administration

Paul Champsaur

     Former Director-General, INSEE, France

Musaemura Guest Charumbira

     Former Director General Statistical Office of Botswana and former Chair of the UN Statistical Commission

Cynthia Clark

     Former Head of the US National Agriculture Statistical Service

Len Cook

     Former National Statistician of the United Kingdom, former Government Statistician of New Zealand, and former Vice President of the International Statistics Institute

Jean-Philippe Cotis

     Former Director-General, INSEE, France

Willem de Vries

     Former President of the International Association for Official Statistics and former Deputy Director of UN Statistics Division

Emerson J Elliot

     Former US Commissioner of Education Statistics

Katherine Smith Evans

     Former Head of the US National Agriculture Statistical Service

Jan Fischer

     Former President of the Czech Statistical Office

Andrew Flatt

     Former Director, Statistics Division, United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific

Yves Franchet

     Former Director General, Statistical Office of the European Communities (Eurostat)

Hing Wang Fung

     Former Commissioner for Census & Statistics, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government

Paolo Garonna

     Secretary general, Italian Banking and Insurance Federation, former Director of the Statistical Division, Deputy Executive Secretary and Interim Executive Secretary at the UN Economic Commission for Europe

Donal Garvey

     Former Director General, Central Statistics Office, Ireland

Erica Groshen

     Former Labour Commissioner and former Head of the US Bureau of Labour Statistics

Hermann Habermann

     Former Chief Statistician of the United States and former Director of the UN Statistics Division

Peter Hackl

     Former Director General of Statistics Austria

Johann Hahlen

     Former President of Destatis, Federal Statistical Office Germany 

Jay Hakes

     Former Administrator, US Energy Information Administration

Fred Ho

     Former Commissioner for Census and Statistics, Hongkong

Tim Holt

     Former Head of UK Government Statistical Service, former President of the Royal Statistical Society

Carlos M Jarque

     Former Chairman UN Statistical Commission, Director of ISI, former Vice President ISI, former President Instituto Nacional de Estadistica y Geografia (INEGI) of Mexico, and former Minister of Social Development of Mexico

Heli Jeskanen-Sundström

     Former Director General of Statistics Finland and former President of the International Association for Official Statistics 

Shigeru Kawasaki

     Former President of the International Association for Official Statistics, former Director General of Statistics Bureau of Japan and former Chair of the UN Statistical Commission

Niels Keiding

     Professor at University of Copenhagen and former President of the ISI

Irena Križman

     Former Director-General of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, former Vice- President of the ISI and former President of the International Association for Official Statistics 

Jae C. Lee

     Professor Emeritus, Korea University and former President of ISI and International Association of Statistical Computing

Pali Lehohla

     Former Statistician-General, South Africa, former Vice-President of the ISI

Denise Lievesley

     Former President of the ISI and the International Association for Official Statistics, former Director of Statistics at UNESCO, former President of the Royal Statistical Society

Olav Ljones

     Former Deputy Director General Statistics Norway and former President of the International Association of Official Statistics

Carlo Malaguerra

     Former Director General of the Swiss Federal Statistical Office and former Chairman of the Conference of European Statisticians

Risenga Maluleke

     Statistician-General, South Africa

Pilar Martín-Guzmán

     Former President of the National Statistical Institute of Spain, former Vice -President of the ISI, former President of the International Association for Official Statistics

Jil Matheson

     Former UK National Statistician and former Chair, UN Statistical Commission 

Donal Murphy

     Former Director General, Central Statistics Office, Ireland

Vijay Nair

     Donald A. Darling Professor Emeritus of Statistics, University of Michigan and former President of ISI and International Society for Business and Industrial Statistics

Blagica Novkovska

     Former Director of the State Statistical Office of the Republic of Macedonia

Barry Nussbaum

     Former Chief Statistician, US Environment Protection Agency and former President of the American Statistical Association

Gerry O’Hanlon

     Former Director General, Central Statistics Office, Ireland

Jozef Olenski

     Former President of the Central Statistical Office of Poland

Oleksandr Osaulenko

     Former Head of Ukrainian Statistics

Edvard Outrata

     Former President of the Czech Statistical Office

Mario Palma

     President of the International Association for Official Statistics (IAOS)

Stephen Penneck

     Former Director General of the Office of National Statistics, UK and former President of the International Association for Official Statistics

Tom Petska

     Former Director of Statistics at the US Inland Revenue Service

Brian Pink

     Former Australian Statistician, New Zealand Government Statistician and President of the International Association for Official Statistics

Jan Plovsing

     Former National Statistician and Director General of Statistics Denmark

Priit Potisepp

     Former Director General, Statistics Estonia

Ken Prewitt

     Former Head of the US Census Bureau

Peter Pukli

     Former President, Hungarian Central Statistical Office 

Walter J. Radermacher

     Former Director General Eurostat, and former President of Destatis,  Federal Statistical Office Germany 

Martha Farnsworth Riche

     Former Head of the US Census Bureau

Phillip Rones

     Former Deputy Commissioner, US Bureau of Labor Statistics

William J Sabol

     Former Director of the US Burau of Crime Statistics

Dieter Sarreither

     Former President of Destatis, the Federal Statistical Office of Germany

Fritz Scheuren

     Former President of the American Statistical Association and Director of Statistics at the Inland Revenue Service

Pedro Luis N. Silva

     Principal Researcher, Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatstica, and former ISI President

Wayne Smith

     Former Chief Statistician, Canada

Hallgrimur Snorrason

     Former Director General of Statistics Iceland, former President of the International Association for Official Statistics and Vice President of the ISI

Eduardo Sojo

     Former President of the National Institute for Statistics and Geospatial Information of Mexico

Jef Teugels

     Former President of the ISI

John H Thompson

     Former Head of the US Census Bureau

Dennis Trewin

     Former Australian Statistician, and former President of the ISI, International Association of Survey Statisticians and the Statistical Society of Australia

Gosse van der Veen

     Former Director General Statistics Netherlands, former Chair of the ESS Partnership Group

Ada van Krimpen

     Executive Director, International Statistical Institute

Dragan Vukmirovic

     Former Director General of Serbian Statistical office

Katherine K. Wallman

     Former Chief Statistician of the United States, Chair of the UN Statistical Commission and former President of the American Statistical Association

Ron Wasserstein

     Executive Director of the American Statistical Association

Janusz Witkowski

     Former President of the Central Statistical Office of Poland

 

18 June 2018