Fresh effort to create register of public bodies
A new attempt to complete the seemingly never-ending attempt to compile a comprehensive list of public organizations and the people they employ has been launched by the government.
The Administrative Reform Ministry issued a circular on Tuesday asking officials at all the other ministries to send by the end of November a list of all the organizations – comprising state bodies which operate under public law (NPDD) and those that operate under private law (NPID) – that are under their auspices but have not yet been included on the register, which first started to be compiled in 2010.
Since then, governments have made repeated efforts to create a complete record of how many people are employed at these bodies and what they spend. But only limited progress has been made.
The first to make an attempt was then deputy prime minister Theodoros Pangalos five years ago. His efforts led to 70 organizations being shut down. Antonis Manitakis took over the job as administrative reform minister in 2012 and managed to merge 17 national bodies and 46 linked to municipalities.
From 2013, Kyriakos Mitsotakis took over. His tally came to 23 bodies being scrapped last year.
Current Administrative Reform Minister Christoforos Vernardakis is hoping to use the current audit to draft a mobility scheme and to shut down any organizations that do not serve a purpose or to merge others where possible.
