On the occasion of the fatal accident in Tempi, the Minister of State insisted a lot on the issues of evaluation and qualitative upgrading of the public administration
Minister of State Akis Skertsos responded to what the official opposition leader Alexis Tsipras stated (from Mega) regarding the railway tragedy and the leadership of the Supreme Court, in an interview on public television.
“I would have expected Mr. Tsipras to say an apology today […] responsibility cannot be vague, it must have a name. I would expect Mr. Tsipras to say, ‘I apologize for de-staffing the independent Railway Regulatory Authority. By seconding to the party and to political offices, executives of this independent authority. The role of independent authorities for such critical services is very important”, the Minister of State underlined in conclusion.
Asked to respond to Mr. Tsipras’s position, that there is a conflict of interest from the moment the son of the prosecutor of the Supreme Court, Isidoros Dogiakos, was “summoned to the minister’s office” (s.s. of Kostas Karamanlis) – and, therefore, himself in his position would have resigned – ‘A. Skertsos stated: “Mr. Karamanlis is not being prosecuted, I don’t see any correlation. I cannot accept this type of suggestion to justice from any political figure.”
And then, “Mr. Tsipras has shown the way in which he perceives his relationship with justice. Whenever it suits him, he comes out and says that ‘there are judges in Athens’ and when the justice system condemns his officials irrevocably for very serious cases, violation of the duty of a public official, he blows the whistle indifferently. Therefore, I don’t think he can make suggestions to justice.”
On the occasion of the fatal accident in Tempi, the Minister of State insisted a lot on the issues of evaluation and qualitative upgrading of the public administration. With this in mind, an internal control service will operate in OSE and Hellenic Train, which can even decide on layoffs. “In 2022, for the first time in the Greek State, 70 civil servants were laid off. Accordingly, in the Greek judiciary, for the first time in the last year, approximately 40 judges were removed from service according to the Ministry of Justice because they were not performing their duties properly.
While he cited, finally, a list of twelve laws that aim to “increase accountability, increase disciplinary sanctions, improve internal control, to have fewer corruption phenomena with a special framework for anti-corruption complaints”. Laws that the government brought to Parliament and New Democracy voted for, on the contrary, SYRIZA and PASOK voted against, as he said. “Those who vote against them cannot be part of the solution,” A. insisted in closing. Schertz.
Source: Skai
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