Bloomberg Attacks Greece’s Civil Servants

The columnist of Bloomberg news agency, Leonid Bershidsky, wrote an article in light of the Greek economy, and the country’s inability to make steps to exit the Memorandum. In his argument he used the murder case of the Mayor of Pangaio murdered by two civil servants who three years later, although convicted, still remain on the municipal payroll.

Mr. Leonid Bershidsky, makes extensive reference to the specific case in Greece, in an article for Ireland’s success to exit the bailout program of the EU and IMF in just three years. He sets the example of the notorious murder case of the Mayor, in order to criticize the institutions in Greece and the civil servants.

With knowledge of intimate details on the case, he writes that the two defendants are civil servants, who were sentenced to life in prison, but in the meantime continue to receive 50% of their pay, that is $800 per month while in prison.  They have appealed every disciplinary board decision, and managed to have themselves dismissed.

He stresses that the situation in the Greek public sector is such that “government employees are extremely hard to fire, even if they have been accused of crimes or disciplinary violations.” he bashed the weakness of the system by adding: “this is one of the reasons Greece’s compliance with the requirements of two international bailouts is constantly in question.”

His articles go on with further statements like:“ Greece is supposed to fire 15,000 unnecessary or under-qualified civil servants by the end of 2014, but it will be allowed to hire one higher-skilled worker for each one fired!” Adding, “it’s easier said than done.”

He concludes using the Mayor of Pangaio murder to once again re-enforce his opinion, highlighting that in Greece every unsuitable public employee has the same power to draw out the dismissal process for years. He ended with saying, “no wonder Greece is the toughest of the crisis-hit countries to reform.”