Ministry ad just for appearances’ sake
The government’s announcement of the job opening for the position of general secretary for public revenues in Thursday’s Financial Times was apparently for the sake of appearances only.
The advertisement for candidates from abroad set a December 6 deadline for applications – last Sunday.
Furthermore, the contact telephone number had nine digits (210.325.644) instead of a correct 10-digit number.
That meant that no candidates from abroad could be accepted, and if any of them did try to contact the Finance Ministry they would simply hear a tone indicating that the number does not exist.
A possible explanation for the errors would be that the government does not wish to see the post taken by an official with tax expertise from Britain or Germany. Another might be that it was just a mistake on the part of the ministry’s services.
Either way, sources say that the government has already made up its mind that the new head of the General Secretariat for Public Revenues will be Antonis Kastrissianakis, the head of the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union.
Kastrissianakis is a longtime European Commission official and one of the few high-ranking Greeks serving in Brussels.
