By Elias Hazou
THE THORNY question of reforming the civil service was yesterday discussed at a meeting chaired by President Glafcos Clerides and attended by Cabinet members, department heads and other senior officials in the civil service.
Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Finance Minister Christos Christodoulou said that the major problems tackled had been the low quality of service often provided by the civil service and the increasing cost of the sector to public finances.
“Everyone involved should realise that a change in mentality is in order… if progress is to be made,” he said.
“The real problem is the mentality that exists — that from the moment a person joins the civil service he has a guaranteed salary whether he works or not,” Christodoulou told reporters.
“He has his promotions guaranteed whether he works or not, and (has) unproductive working hours. It is an example to avoid, but it appears very attractive to those working in the private sector,” the minister added.
The meeting proposed a wide range of solutions that would modernise the ailing civil service. These included: transfer of employees to departments that were low on staff, improvements in automation, regulation of working hours and possible reduction in the salaries of newly-appointed employees.
Obviously civil service unions would first have to be consulted on certain issues, Christodoulou said.
According to the Finance Minister, managerial staff in the civil service have not taken the required initiatives to control employees. He mentioned the common practice of employees who obtained health documents preventing them from being transferred to other departments.
On the contentious question of pay cuts, Christodoulou said that he considered lowering the pay of newly-appointed employees, but that he would be “conservative” in cutbacks for other categories of civil servants.
Civil servants currently number around 13,000, of which about 5,500 are contract workers.
They work a straight seven-hour shift five days a week. In winter they work one afternoon a week but during the hot summer months they have their afternoons free.
Proposals on reform of the civil service will be forwarded to the Cabinet in October.
