The Mitsotakis government, in a “demonstration of ruthless legislative authoritarianism”, submitted to the Parliament, yesterday morning, the draft law, for the reform of the governance system of the OTAs, the abolition of the NPDD of the municipalities, the monitoring of the performance of the local self-government, he complained the rapporteur of SYRIZA-PS Giota Poulos who spoke of “the complete surprise of the people of the self-government”. The SYRIZA member of parliament pointed out that KEDE, in a teleconference a week ago, asked the Ministry of the Interior to postpone the submission of the bill, in order to precede the self-governing elections that are only ten days away.

“Once again you showed authoritarianism, against the institutions and the people of the self-government. You showed contempt for their priorities and concerns. For four years, the self-government has been waiting from your government for the framework of the so-called reforms of the staff state, real decentralization, powers and resources. But in vain. For four years you trapped her in opacity, manipulation, petty party dealing, authoritarianism,” said Mrs. Poulos.

In relation to the bill, the SYRIZA-PS member of parliament warned that “the absolute predominance of the mayor-centric model is sought, with regulations that strengthen the powers of the mayor and weaken the minority factions, i.e. the opposition».

This goal, said the SYRIZA rapporteur, is achieved with the following provisions of the bill:

– the deputy mayor is now appointed exclusively by the mayor’s party.

– the mayor can dismiss the deputy mayor at any time, without even having to justify his decision.

– financial committees and quality of life committees are abolished in municipalities and replaced by municipal ones. Likewise, the executive and financial committees of the Region are abolished and replaced by regional committees. Especially this regulation is completely anti-democratic but also problematic, in terms of its functionality, because it merges tested collective bodies into a chaotic, dysfunctional whole, with a multitude of disparate objects. The government further increases the percentage of majority representation in these committees to 70% and 80%. For example, the five-member committees will have one member from the opposition, the seven-member ones will have two from the opposition, the nine-member ones will have three. “So the government does not even respect the law it has passed and which gave 60%, that is 3/5, to the mayor’s majority faction”, said the SYRIZA rapporteur.

– social and cultural services that the municipalities must provide to the citizens, through agencies and organizations, are cut with the dissolution of the NPDD of the municipalities and school boards and their transfer to the municipalities. “We call this deregulation,” said the MP and pointed out that the planned dissolution concerns structures such as daycare centers, KDAP, KDAP for the disabled, KIFI, Sports Programs for all, Employment Programs for the Unemployed, Conservatories and Philharmonics, structures responsible for organizing cultural events , food distribution and many other functions. Mrs. Poulou pointed out that civil society also participates in these structures, as for example parents’ and guardians’ associations participate in School Committees, but “with these arrangements, this representation is lost”.

– the government justifies the dissolution of the NPDD of the municipalities by invoking understaffing and the division of cases between municipalities and legal entities. But the government itself is responsible for understaffing, underfunding, the chaotic distribution of responsibilities and the problematic provision of supplies and services, said Mrs. Poulos, who noted that municipalities are themselves understaffed and underfunded and the same problems found in legal entities, are now also found in municipalities.

– the NPDDs of the municipalities are dissolved according to the “head hurts, cuts off the head” since the basic conditions for documenting the need to abolish the NPDDs and their transfer to the municipalities have not been included in the bill. There is no assessment of the structures, based on uniform and specific criteria, social, economic, administrative that will show the functionality, efficiency, usefulness and sustainability of these entities.

– although the constitution guarantees the autonomy of the Local Self-Government, the decision to dissolve the legal entities is not taken by the municipal councils.

– the dissolution of the agencies and the transfer of the employees will take place on 31.12.2023, without a transition period and with the immediate transfer of the employees to the municipalities. However, the modification of the internal organizations of the municipalities will take place within the first half of 2024. The time is not sufficient considering that this is an important structural change and there will be in many cases a change of municipal authorities. This means that workers may be left unpaid and with uncertainty about their jobs and also that there may be a degradation of services to vulnerable social groups that need these services.

– The government also leaves “loopholes”, since by decision of the Minister of the Interior and following an application by the relevant municipal council, which is submitted by November 15, i.e. during the elections, which will be accompanied by a justification with quantitative and qualitative data, some may be excluded legal entities, due to the specialized object of project performance and wider recognition. “Possibly we are dealing with a loophole for granting exemptions to customers that will not be related to objective criteria,” said the deputy.

– the provisions for monitoring the performance of the Local Government are moving in the right direction. However, the measurement and evaluation of performance should not develop into a process of transfer of the government’s responsibilities to self-administration, leaving the OTAs. Monitoring the performance of local authorities must be combined with their institutional armoring and financial support.