The prime minister proved that he believes in collaborations, emphasized the Minister of State, responsible for the coordination of government work,Akis Schertsosspeaking on the radio station today Sky 100.3.

Mr. Skertsos cited as an example the government in which people from different political origins work together, “but with a single-party basis in the parliament” and added that Mr. Mitsotakis “proved that he can expand the influence of the ND outside its framework. He will the opposition must tell us with whom it will form a government of progressive cooperation”.

Mr. Schertsos emphasized the need to change the culture in the State, which is – as he said – the most important battle that the government must fight, and a major issue is the integration of internal controls of processes and people into the operation of the State, something that is missing today from our country, but it is done in many other states.

“The right person in the right position is our goal for the public sector” said Mr. Skertsos and emphasized that “if we want to move forward, we must accept the evaluation with objective criteria” adding that he does not see sincerity in the opposition in trying to change things in the state.

The Minister of State, referring to the Tempe accident, spoke of three levels of targeting by the government. First is accountability, second is support for the families of the victims, and third is the safe restart of the railways with more safeguards.

For the latter, as he said, assistance has already been requested from the EU and the German government, while in cooperation with Hellenic Train and OSE staff, the government will proceed the next day with the maximum level of security, in order to regain the trust of common to railways.

He added that a rigorous assessment of the networks, tunnels and the training program approved by the Rail Regulatory Authority was called for, saying “we need to look step-by-step through all the procedures to prevent another accident”.

“Greece will be one of the 7 countries that will acquire an integrated remote control system, but there should be the necessary responsibility from all personnel to prevent the accident,” said Mr. Skertsos.

He noted that the government and the former transport minister had identified the weakness of the railways, which is why the government said “the next decade will be about the railways”, while adding that “the justified anger of citizens towards the government and the political system, we he says that a lot of work is needed to build a state that, at all levels, will radiate seriousness, responsibility and professionalism. We should not nullify the work that has been done so far because of anger.”

He admitted that “we have not managed to control all the “black holes” of the public sector” but – as he emphasized – “we have the right ideas and the people to solve the problems, which we don’t see in the opposition“.

He also estimated that if anything emerges from all of this, it is that “we need more of a staff state with accountability and goal-setting, with improvement-oriented personnel evaluation, and training. The right person in the right position is our goal for the public sector. When we build something from scratch we have proven that we do it well, as e.g. the vaccination campaign where we saw the state we want. We have proven that we can make the changes. The prime minister takes responsibility for mistakes and can correct them.”