Tempus
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Tidskriften
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tidigare veckor: |
Stories of eye-popping waste and
abuse of power among Greece’s bureaucrats are legion, including
officials who hire their wives, and managers who submit $38,000
bills for office curtains.
The work force in Greece’s Parliament is so bloated, according
to a local press investigation, that some employees do not even
bother to come to work because there are not enough places for
all of them to sit. But as Europe looks for any sign of hope that
Greece is on the road to reform, there are growing concerns about
its ability — and willingness — to trim its payroll,
a crucial element in bringing expenses under control enough to
win continued international financing.
This week, the government’s resolve
will be tested once again. Greece’s two major umbrella unions
have called for a rare 48-hour general strike, and several critical
austerity measures are coming up for votes in Parliament, including
one that would cut 30,000 public-sector jobs. Some experts believe
that Greece could reap significant savings by reducing its bureaucracy,
which employs one out of five workers in the country and by some
estimates could be trimmed by as much as a third without materially
affecting services. But though salaries have been cut, the government
has yet to lay off anyone.
The main reason is also one of the very reasons that Greece got
into trouble in the first place: The government is in many ways
an army of patronage appointments built up over decades. When
election time rolls around, state workers become campaign workers,
and their reach is enormous. There are so many of them that almost
every family has one.
This puts the Socialist prime minister, George A. Papandreou,
or any other Greek leader, in a tough spot: There can be little
upside to cutting jobs precisely when the government most needs
support for unpopular budget-cutting actions.
“There is a political cost to these reforms,” said Nickolaos
G. Travlos, an economist at the Alba Graduate Business School
in Athens. “These workers are opinion leaders in their communities.
And they are busy blaming the government, especially a Socialist
government that is supposed to protect them.”
They are also well organized. This
week’s general strike follows weeks of smaller strikes, rallies,
sit-ins and a blockade of the Athens landfill that has left piles
of garbage rotting in the streets. When auditors from the “troika”
— the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank
and the European Commission — arrived last month at the Finance
Ministry, workers blocked their entry.
In four days of tense negotiations, the auditors pushed hard for
cutting the bureaucracy. Still, the plan to cut 30,000 jobs is
modest by any measure. It amounts to about 4 percent of the public
work force and would affect mostly people close to retirement.
They would get a soft landing, too: 60 percent of their pay for
a year while they remain in a “reserve” pool. After
that, those who did not retire or find another job in the administration
would be laid off.
The government has about 700,000 employees
and 80,000 more who work for government-owned entities like the
power company. Thirty years ago, experts say, the public sector
was about one-third that size. (Until a census was carried out
last year, however, government officials admitted they did not
really know how many employees they had.)
Even if the new plan passes, it may yet run into legal challenges.
Greece’s Constitution grants its public servants lifetime
tenure, a situation that may go a long way toward explaining their
indifferent attitude toward getting things done or switching to
efficient practices.
Some ministries still have employees whose sole job is to record
the arrival of documents in a ledger. “It’s crazy,”
said Nikos Hlepas, an expert on public administration at the University
of Athens. “That’s their whole job even though today
we have e-mail.”
But taking action against public sector
workers can be costly, experts point out. For instance, many suspect
that tax collectors, vital to the government’s efforts to
raise more revenues, have been on a work slowdown. The collectors,
who like all public servants were hit with salary cuts, completed
fewer audits this year than last year.
The head of the tax collectors’ union, Yiannis Grivas, said
the problems were due to the introduction of a new computer system.
But Mr. Grivas did not hesitate to warn that there would be a
slowdown and more strikes if there were layoffs.
“If they do that, there will be repercussions,” he said.
“There is always the human element.”
Government officials say they are
ready to get tough with unions that do not cooperate. They are
also promising a major overhaul of the bureaucracy to be undertaken
with help from international experts so that they can end the
favoritism that has prevailed.
Elias Mossialos, the government spokesman, said reforms would
include new disciplinary procedures and the elimination of the
practice of virtually automatic promotion based on years of service.
In some departments, Mr. Mossialos said, large numbers of employees
had reached the highest ranks and pay grades.“We are going
to re-establish a hierarchy,” he said. “And there will
be cost savings in it, too.”
Elias Mossialos, the government spokesman,
said reforms would include new disciplinary procedures and the
elimination of the practice of virtually automatic promotion based
on years of service. In some departments, Mr. Mossialos said,
large numbers of employees had reached the highest ranks and pay
grades.
“We are going to re-establish a hierarchy,” he said.
“And there will be cost savings in it, too.”
Whether the right workers will be
laid off remains an open question. “A lot of people in the
government are terrified,” Mr. Hlepas said. “They don’t
think any of those people over in Parliament are going to go.
They think the ones that do the work will get cut.”
Thomas Tsamatsoulis, 41, who works for the Greek equivalent of
the Federal Aviation Administration, said he found himself on
an early list headed for the reserve pool, though he had been
sent to the United States for electronics training and now has
a skill that is rare in his agency. At the same time, Mr. Tsamatsoulis
said, the agency, which has just two airplanes, has more than
15 pilots.
“You want to believe the government will do this right,”
he said. “But it is very difficult. It’s not how it
has worked in the past. It’s all about who you know.”
Greece’s bureaucracy has been
growing steadily since democracy was reinstated in 1974, with
each new administration adding its supporters to the payroll —
and wages rising steeply in the past decade, experts say.
“There was really a party going on,” said Yannis Stournaras,
an economist and the director of the Foundation for Economic and
Industrial Research in Athens. “The government kept adding
bonuses and benefits and pensions. At election time there was
a boom cycle as they handed out jobs.”
“Now they need to cut,” he added. “But they have
already lost precious time.”
Stories of excesses abound. Mr. Papandreou
told Parliament that one of his ministers found a predecessor’s
$38,000 bill for curtains when the Socialists returned to power
in 2009. Mr. Mossialos said he found that his own ministry, for
media and communication, was spending $750,000 a year for office
space for just 11 people.
But some experts question whether the culture of bloat and favoritism
will ever be conquered. Last month, for instance, Anna Diamantopoulou,
the education minister, proposed appointing 150 young supporters
of Mr. Papandreou’s party, Pasok, to her ministry’s
Youth Institute, but the project was canceled after critical media
reports. Ms. Diamantopoulou’s spokesman said the jobs would
have been paid for by the European Union, but were eliminated
after a budget review.Whether the right workers will be laid off
remains an open question. “A lot of people in the government
are terrified,” Mr. Hlepas said. “They don’t think
any of those people over in Parliament are going to go. They think
the ones that do the work will get cut.”
Thomas Tsamatsoulis, 41, who works for the Greek equivalent of
the Federal Aviation Administration, said he found himself on
an early list headed for the reserve pool, though he had been
sent to the United States for electronics training and now has
a skill that is rare in his agency. At the same time, Mr. Tsamatsoulis
said, the agency, which has just two airplanes, has more than
15 pilots.
“You want to believe the government will do this right,”
he said. “But it is very difficult. It’s not how it
has worked in the past. It’s all about who you know.”
