the more cynical among us ahem would probably say that it borders on the impossible to accurately report data on this scale and in such amounts, regardless of intention.

It's quite far from being impossible. Actually, it's a widely known fact that a string of greek governments systematically falsified Greece's books, and it actually culminated with Greece going as far as hiring Goldman Sachs to hide their double-digit deficits.

> The false data Greece reported to get into the Eurozone was an open secret,

That's the old attempt at diffusion of responsibility that often pops up. It's the same old tired argument: once the fact that Greece did in fact cooked its books and falsified their accounting for years, there comes the argument that they still have no responsibility for their own actions because somehow.... others might have known they were falsifying their records?

It's a lame excuse, and it never sticks.