Dr Georgopoulos was interviewed by Folha de Sao Paulo, one of the most influential daily newspapers in Brazil about corruption in public procurement during the COVID-19 crisis.
Dr Georgopoulos argued that it will be necessary, after the pandemic, to put the emphasis on accountability. ‘We will need to check all contracts and products delivered to detect errors and fraud; we need to learn from this in order to be better prepared next time.”
In addition he observed that "If something goes wrong in Brazil in Greece or in Italy the first reaction would be to say that there was corruption; if anything goes wrong in the UK or in Germany the assumption would be that it was just a mistake; it’s not always like this.”
He also cited as a good example the joint procurement [of crucial COVID-19 supplies] implemented by the EU during the pandemic. Finally, he referred to the mechanism to redistribute supplies from countries where there are surpluses to those with shortages.
The newspaper article can be found here (in Portuguese).
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