Prime Minister Antonis Samaras has prohibitted Ministers from staffing their ministries and will hand select the officials that will occupy over 1,400 positions, in an attempt to supervise the actions of all government department heads as well as ward off corruption.
A letter by Samaras, to Minister of the State Dimitris Stamatis, and to all Ministry heads underlines that the members of every ministry and officials needed to fill posts in public organizations will be selected by the premier himself (or the Maximos Mansion). The move by Samaras is in the framework of preventing incidents of cronyism as well as to put ministers under his own supervision. The same "sandwich" system will be applied to all subordinates in the departments and agencies of every Ministry.
The purpose of this highly tactful and very strategic move is so that the heads of every Ministry know that their subordinates and senior members of their departments, were selected by the prime minister's office and that this will act as an informal but important safety valve to prevent outbreaks of corruption.