Coalition focuses on pending actions before troika’s return

Prime Minister Antonis Samaras or his finance minister, Gikas Hardouvelis, are expected to write to cabinet members this coming week reminding them of the actions that each department has to carry out and the limited time frame in which these measures can be carried out so Greece is prepared for the return of the troika to Athens in mid-September.

The government has to complete five more of six so-called prior actions by August to receive the next 1-billion-euro sub-tranche of its bailout. But it also has another 600 more minor actions to complete before the troika comes back to carry out a review of the Greek program.

Samaras is keen that his government is up to speed when the troika returns because he would like the nature of the inspectors’ visits to change. The Greek premier is hoping to convince the troika that they do not need to be in Athens for drawn-out reviews in the future. According to source, he sees this as a way of leading Greece into a post–memorandum era.

The prime minister, however, has to overcome friction within his government about the reforms that are being carried out. PASOK has recently expressed concerns about the way the process of evaluating civil servants is being carried out. Sources at the Socialist party told Kathimerini that they are unhappy with Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis for insisting that in each government department at least 15 percent of employees should be deemed below standard.

PASOK, however, denies that it opposes implementing any of the measures the coalition has pledge to the troika it will adopt.

“The law on evaluation must be implemented as it was voted,” said Interior Minister Argyris Dinopoulos, a New Democracy politician, on Saturday. “Woe betide us if we vote through a law and then start amending it before we even implement it.”

The evaluation process is behind schedule after civil servants’ union ADEDY ordered its members not to take part in the scheme. A court last week found that the union’s actions were illegal. ADEDY’s appeal against that decision is due to be heard this week by the Council of State, Greece’s highest administrative court.