Governance

Even the concept of the so-called “wider public sector” is an affront. This Greek invention was created, with the consent of all political parties, as a means to circumvent the Law, and thus allow for the hiring of armies of political friends without taking the required examinations. The public sector must be as small as possible. We do not want the state to be an entrepreneur. There is no way that it can succeed in that role. The state must have few but highly efficient functionaries that will carry out its regulatory role. The personnel transfers from one service to the next, the so-called personnel reserves and the salary cuts that the Government has implemented will make the problem bigger, thus bringing bankruptcy a step closer.

Our aim is not to punish the civil servants, but to create a different public administration. The biggest crime of state patronage is that it deprives the Greek Economy of a huge number of potentially productive people, forcing them instead into make-believe work, dealing all day with useless paperwork. All these people could find meaningful and productive roles in a new Greece, a Greece that will be growing and developing.

However, now, the system is frozen. To restart the engine, all the changes must be made immediately, all at the same time, all that was not done in the last 35 years. The small steps taken reluctantly never worked. How will it be done? Not by cobbling together fixes to the existing dysfunctional state machinery, but by building a new parallel efficient state from scratch. One by one, the pieces that are replaced will be eliminated. The separation from a sterile, counterproductive job is not the end of the world when there is growth in the Economy. On the contrary, it will be an opportunity for more meaningful choices and more income for those that have a desire to work. For the professional parasites, yes, it will be hard, and their income may suffer, but should we really worry about them?

How many workers are needed to operate a given public service with full computerization and full use of information technology, without the useless seals and copies and certificates from the room next door? What skills are needed? An invitation to apply for the necessary positions is made public. Candidates from the public service and the private sector may apply. The best qualified candidates are selected to set up a modern service, and the story ends there. The existing structure is deleted. The redundant personnel are separated.