Support for central administration reform in Greece

Public administration reform can play an important role in achieving sustainable growth in Greece and has therefore been a key priority of all three economic adjustment programmes. The Greek authorities are committed to strengthen the capacity of public administration, through a wide range of administrative reforms, with the aim to enhance the quality of public services, the efficiency of the civil service and its ability to regulate the economy and implement policies.

To this end, the Greek authorities have designed, with the assistance of the French Reform Partner and the Technical Assistance support provided through the former Task Force for Greece, a roadmap for the reform of the central administration which was adopted in January 2012. The aims of that roadmap were to:

•  improve the effectiveness, accountability and integrity of the administration and to simplify the decision-making processes;
• built a strong centre of decision-making with effective inter-ministerial coordination;
• create the necessary structures in each line Ministry for effective monitoring of procedures, including expenditure, internal control and audit, HRM and ICT;
• improve HR management (recruitment, performance, career management, mobility), including the selection of senior managers.

The Memorandum of Understanding between the European Commission acting on behalf of the European Stability Mechanism and the Hellenic Republic and the Bank of Greece (MoU) signed on 19 August 2015 and the Supplement MoU signed on 16 June 2016, between the European Commission and Greece, highlight the main elements to be improved in the framework of the reform: (1) reorganisation of administrative structures, (2) rationalisation of administrative processes, (3) optimisation of human resources, (4) strengthening transparency and accountability, (5) e-government and, (6) communication strategy.