The government is planning a new system for selecting administrations and supervisors in the public sector with the dual objective of speeding up the procedures and selecting the most suitable candidates for each position.

The interventions will be reflected in a bill that is expected to be tabled in Parliament by the Minister of the Interior, Niki Kerameos within September, while immediately after its passing, changes will be launched in the administrations of NPDD and NPID with a high priority in hospitals.

The new framework will replace a 2020 law that instituted a merit-based selection process, however in practice it remained inactive due to the extremely voluminous process that fell on the “backs” of ASEP, causing significant delays.

Indicative of the operational problems of the implementation of the law, mainly due to the volume of specific bodies that cumulatively exceed 500, is the fact that in three years ASEP has announced only 12 positions for which more than 200 nominations were submitted.

All these agencies will be grouped into three categories depending on the scope and importance of their activities and their geographical distribution. In the first category will be distributed the large bodies of nationwide scope such as EOPYY, EOT, ERGOSE and EOF.

The second category will include organizations of local scope such as municipal sports centers and libraries, organizations managing protected areas, etc. In a separate category, due to the weight given by the government, the seven administrative health districts and the 106 hospitals of the country will be placed.

As the Deputy Minister of the Interior, Vivi Charalambogiannis reports to APE, the selection criteria will not be horizontal but different for each category and depending on the nature and mission of the body.

In the first phase, the objective qualifications of the candidates (studies, previous service, etc.) will be evaluated, those who qualify in the second phase will participate in a structured interview. It is not excluded that the candidates also pass a written test organized by ASEP so that their skills are also taken into account, thus adopting new selection tools that are widely used in the private sector for the selection of executives.

Also, the criteria for the participation of the candidates are being tightened, which will be completely related to the outlines of the specific positions of responsibility and will be reflected in the announcement from the beginning, in order to immediately exclude nominations unrelated to the object of the organization.

The final selection will be made by the competent minister supervising the institution or by the Council of Ministers among the three candidates who will collect the highest score.

Productivity bonus or layoff

In addition to the selection framework, new conditions are introduced for the selected commanders. Their term of office is increased from three to four years. Upon assuming their duties they will sign performance contracts which are directly linked to the annual action plans of the ministries.

They will be evaluated twice, once in the middle of the term and once at the end. In the event that the set goals are achieved then the ability to pay productivity bonuses.

However, if the performance is not satisfactory, the competent minister recommends his immediate termination to the Council of Ministers.

The bill will also provide for technical improvements that will speed up the selection process. The burden of evaluation will not fall on just one five-member council of ASEP as is currently the case, but will be distributed among several councils depending on the responsibilities of the bodies that will operate at the same time.

The independent authority will also be exempted from the obligation to issue notices, as they will be prepared by the relevant ministries and then sent to ASEP for approval.

After the passing of the bill, the procedures for management changes will be launched in all 522 NPDD and NPID, starting with the hospitals. It is estimated that the relevant changes in all the agencies will be completed in one year.

Changes to the boss selection system

At the same time, the Ministry of the Interior is working on an intervention in the selection system for supervisors in positions of responsibility in the State. To date, the lack of digitization of all the required data for the selections, combined with the focus on formal qualifications, makes it difficult to fulfill the goal of selecting the most suitable executives of the public administration hierarchy in the three-year time frame.

The ministry, in collaboration with ASEP, is directed both at simplifying and digitizing the process by utilizing existing tools until the activation of the HRMS, the integrated public information system, and the integration of tools for verifying appropriate skills, through a written test in addition to standard qualifications and work experience .

The written test will follow the standards of ASEP’s pan-Hellenic written competition, with the difference that it will focus on specific characteristics required for the position of responsibility, such as the ability to manage a team.