The tax office commissioned to investigate the finances of those on the Lagarde list and dig deep to find the country’s most powerful tax offenders has been without electricity for two days running. Without warning, the Public Power Corporation (PPC) pulled the plug on electricity in the region so that dozens of businesses and offices, including the 17-floor building that houses the Audit Authority for Taxpayers with Great Wealth and the Audit Authority for Large Enterprises, have sunk into darkness.

Deputy Finance Minister Nadia Valavani, the woman in charge of these two tax offices, promised that she will not succumb to blackmail but admitted that there can be  no investigation while there are no PCs.

Speaking to Proto Thema, Dimitris Masinas, head of the Audit Authority for Taxpayers with Great Wealth, said that this is not the first time that the building’s power has been cut. “I happened last year also. The Public Sector has no debt, but most of those housed in the building, often, don’t pay their power bills, exploiting the fact that there are public services also operating in the building,” he said.

Masinas laments that there aren’t separate PPC counters for each of the buildings owners. He is critical of the fact that no warning was issued prior to the power cut so that the office could have taken some precautions to prevent the loss of data from computers.

“We are at the tax office from where the political leadership expects to amass huge revenues as we are the ones checking serious cases, such as bank transfers, offshore companies and of course the Lagarde list,” says Masinas. “We are the largest tax office in the country and each passing hour means huge loss to the Public Sector, bearing in mind that we are a fully computerized group.”