Pension study by ILO
Greece will sign a contract with the International Labor Organization (ILO) for a viability study on the country’s pension system by mid-November at the latest. The study will be assigned by a newly formed committee of experts on the social security issue. Although the study will cost far less than the amount spent four years ago when British actuaries had been chosen, the reason for choosing ILO was not financial. «The more credible the body executing the study is, the less controversy will be generated from its conclusions,» Nikos Analytis, the head of the experts’ committee, reportedly said to the group of International Monetary Fund representatives. The IMF group visited Analytis in the context of its contacts with government and social bodies about labor market and social security issues. A question is still lingering on the reliability of data. To that end, the Employment Ministry is putting pressure on the administrations of social security funds to assign and complete their studies. Otherwise, ILO will face the same problem the British company had to confront, with the double registration of workers insured. Effectively, despite the absence of the General Confederation of Greek Labor (GSEE), the assignment of the study is the only move that meets no reaction. The ministry’s effort to impose rules and business plans is openly disputed from inside several funds. Even the unavoidable and justified involvement of Special Secretary Evangelos Papadopoulos in issues concerning the management of the funds’ reserves is commented on negatively, contributing to the creation of an atmosphere that does not favor any fund sanitization initiatives.
