Minister pledges new evaluation scheme this year

A new evaluation scheme for civil servants will be unveiled by the government before the end of the year, Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis told Sunday’s Kathimerini.

Mitsotakis is currently involved in a row with more than 20 mayors and Attica Governor Rena Dourou over the current assessment process, which would lead to 15 percent of civil servants being deemed below standard and having to move to other jobs or be retrained.

The minister stood by his efforts to evaluate public sector workers’ performance but added that a new scheme would soon be in place. “Evaluation is one of the most useful administrative tools,” he said. “For many decades it was a useless tool in Greece because all public servants would get full marks.

“By December we will have tabled in Parliament a new, modern and innovative evaluation system that will allow the public sector to be better, more effective and friendlier toward citizens.”

Also speaking to Kathimerini, Dourou insisted that the current system is unconstitutional and “serves the demands of Greece’s lenders” for more civil servants to be sacked. “The aim should be to create an evaluation system that makes public services better and more effective,” she said.

Dourou also said that her, and other local officials’, objections to the evaluation process would not hamper efforts to root out civil servants with fake degrees. She said internal checks are already taking place and the results are being passed to public administration inspectors.