NYT:For Greek Tax Reformers, Good Ideas Aren’t Enough

Files and forms continue to pile up around a tax office in Athens. Greece’s tax collection system is plagued by inefficiency and resistance from powerful groups.

ATHENS — For nearly two years, as the debt crisis worsened,Diomidis Spinellis led a team that devised innovative software to helpGreece crack down on tax cheats. He sent daily reports to his superiors showing which regional tax offices lagged in closing cases and collecting tax revenue.
But last September, Mr. Spinellis, who interrupted a brilliant career as a computer science professor in 2009 to work for the Greek Finance Ministry, resigned, frustrated that officials did little or nothing with the data he generated.
“I cannot remember getting an enthusiastic response,” Mr. Spinellis, 45, said with characteristic understatement in an interview in his tiny, book-filled office at Athens University of Economics and Business, where he has returned to teaching.

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