Prime minister Antonis Samaras called for drastic changes to the State and Public Administration, instructing his ministers to drastically reduce bureaucracy and pointless, time consuming procedures and ensure transparency and meritocracy, in a letter to Cabinet members on Monday. In the letter, Samaras stresses the need for rationalization of cost and upgrading of services provided and called for coordinated cooperation among the Cabinet members.
"One of the fundamental changes our government must introduce is reform of the State and Public Administration. Our chief aspiration is the creation of an efficient and functional administration that is rid of its chronic problems and which will contribute to the country's growth and be close to the citizen, a Public Administration worthy of an EU member-state."He noted that the Administrative Reform and e-Governance ministry, in collaboration with the European Commission Task Force on Greece "and the precious contribution of our own personnel", would in the next few days begin an evaluation of the structures of the ministries and the agencies they oversee, aimed at their restructure.
"Thus, we will pinpoint and neutralize the weaknesses and dysfunctions in the Public Administration. The result of the evaluation will be the restructure of the services through the merger of abolition of inactive units and services, with the aim being the rationalization of the operation of the ministries and the curtailment of unnecessary expenditures." AMNA