Greece's tax agency is under fire after police, not tax inspectors, uncovered two major tax evasion cases at food chains.
The agency said this week that it is investigating whether any of its own employees were involved.
Sources at the Independent Authority for Public Revenue rejected claims that it fails to audit large companies.
They said it carried out 31,500 regular audits in 2025 and issued 2.8 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in taxes and fines.
The agency said its real-time invoicing system, known as myDATA, could not have caught the fraud, because it records only receipts that are actually issued.
Takeout and delivery chains are not required to link their ordering software to the system, and investigators say some orders were logged as free and paid in cash without a receipt.
In the case of the Choriatiko bakery chain, the agency said it had been investigating for months but held back at prosecutors' request while police completed their own probe.
The chain's owner was jailed last week over alleged tax fraud worth more than 100 million euros.
The agency said 58 employees were found to have committed offenses in 2025. Seventeen were suspended and three were dismissed.
The defense comes as opposition leader Alexis Tsipras accuses the government of ignoring warnings about the chain.