Reform and politics

The decision by Moody’s to keep Greece’s credit rating one step below investment grade shows once again how the problems in our judicial system cost a lot of money, in addition to their undermining citizens’ confidence in institutions.

There has been progress in several economic indicators in recent years, yet the problems on which the “strictest” of the rating agencies focused continue to undermine the effort.

Among these, a major concern for investors is the unacceptably slow dispensation of justice – no one wants to tie up money in a country where it can take 10 years to solve a problem in court. This problem is one of the weaknesses of our public administration as a whole.

This is not a question of whether there should be more or less government, nor more or fewer regulations.

It concerns the need for better government, for better employees and more effective systems, at the provincial and central level. New national laws and directives from Brussels are not enough.

There needs to be a change of mentality, so that people in the judiciary and the public administration are interested in solving problems, so that they are trained accordingly and so that the system promotes the more capable ones to positions where they can make a difference. In the administration, people who are on the front line should be granted authority to solve problems, using procedures that are simple and transparent, so that cases are not “lost” between different offices, so that opportunities for corruption are eradicated.

However strange it may sound in our country, there may need to be more – not fewer – employees where they are needed (as in the processing of immigrants’ residence permits, which are subject to unbelievable delays). Digitalization can be decisive, as long as procedures are simplified, and the necessary services adequately staffed.

These measures would improve the public administration, the judiciary and every aspect of our daily lives.

Studies have shown that where the quality of government is either very good or very bad, reducing regulations and making labor more flexible does not have an impact – in the former case because improvement is not necessary, in the latter because reforms alone are not enough.

The search for the collective good, in other words, begins at the top, with politicians.