Discipline slows in public sector

Significant increase seen last year in number of cases that were not heard

More than 4,000 disciplinary cases in Greece’s public administration were outstanding at the end of last year, according to a report published yesterday.

The Inspectors-Controllers Body for Public Administration (SEEDD) said in its annual report that a total of 4,351 cases had to be heard by the end of 2016. This includes appeals but when these are stripped out, it is clear that there has been a significant rise in the number of pending cases.

At the end of 2015, 2,185 cases (not including appeals) were yet to be heard. Twelve months later, this number had risen to 3,216.

It appears that the numerous circulars sent out by the government calling for the disciplinary hearings to speed up has not yielded any results. Administrative Reform Minister Olga Gerovasili distributed such a note recently but public administration officials point out that the only impact these missives have is to increase the pressure on each organization concerned.

There had been an rise in the number of decisions issued by disciplinary panels when the current New Democracy leader, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, was administrative reform minister. In 2013, there were 1,207 decisions. This rose to around 1,500 a year later but in 2015, the number nosedived to 675.

One of the reasons that the panels are not carrying out their duties or are slow in issuing decisions is that since 2015, unionists have been allowed to participate in the councils.