Greece’s public sector evaluation system, though legally established, remains largely unimplemented. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced in Parliament on Wednesday that “the institutional and constitutional enshrinement of public sector evaluation will be proposed by New Democracy in the next constitutional revision,” raising questions about the system’s actual application.
“It’s not a legal issue; it’s a political one. Evaluation doesn’t work because the state is a tool in the hands of any given government,” said public administration expert Panagiotis Karkatsoulis.
He aded that with 550,000 public servants, and approximately 3 million people connected to the public sector, it’s the backbone of society.
“Who would challenge this body?” he asked.
The new public sector evaluation law (4940/2022), replacing the 2016 law passed by the then SYRIZA government, ties performance to specific goals for each public agency.
However, the implementation has been slow.
“In the first two years, the public sector hasn’t changed significantly, but we did force departments to answer: ‘What is my job and by when must I complete it?’” said Deputy Interior Minister Vivi Charalampogianni.
AI tools showed discrepancies in performance evaluations, with only 5,000 out of 50,000 workers truly meeting the “high performance” criteria.
“For an employee to be considered ‘high-performing,’ there must be actual, documented evidence,” Charalampogianni explained.
Despite bureaucratic obstacles, the evaluation system is set to include citizen feedback in 2025, though experts like Karkatsoulis remain skeptical. “Without the ability to dismiss underperforming employees, evaluation lacks real impact,” he concluded.