President of the Hellenic Republic Karolos Papoulias met with the General Inspector for Public Administration Leandros Rakintzis on Tuesday, who announced a “marked improvement” in the public sector based on his report for 2013.
Rakintzis noted that the Greek state’s efficiency is rising and that the public sector has started shaping up after the layoffs implementation.
“In other words, one million employees were probably too many. Now that we have reached 750,000 they are working better,” he said. He also stated that stricter rules and evaluation made civil servants more careful, bringing a “marked improvement.”
“Both the numbers and the severity of disciplinary offences, as well as performance, are better. The bureaucracy is starting to be reined in. The older generation of employees unfamiliar with computers is leaving. Now the new employees are all computer savvy,” said Rakintzis.
Greece’s international lenders have ordered that about 15,000 civil servants should have been laid off in 2013 and 2014. So far, the Greek government has proceeded with 8,500 layoffs while about 6,500 must be implemented within the next months.
However, Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis has claimed that there will be no layoffs in 2015 and has stated that the government’s target is a public sector that operates with less money but more effectively.
See all the latest news from Greece and the world at Greekreporter.com. Contact our newsroom to report an update or send your story, photos and videos. Follow GR on Google News and subscribe here to our daily email!
