Sensors to monitor UK office working

LONDON (21 December): The United Kingdom Ministry of Justice has signed a £4 million ($A7.2 million) deal with a United States company to provides sensors to monitor the occupancy of Government office space. 

The technology will report on whether desks and meeting rooms are occupied or not and the numbers of people leaving or entering part of a building.

Departments have been collecting data on attendance at their headquarters since February as part of a Cabinet Office push to get Public Servants back to offices in greater numbers when COVID-19 restrictions came to an end.

The Departments have used methods such as WIFI and computer log-ins associated with location, as well as swipe pass entry data, space or desk booking systems and manual counts.

The contract with FM:Systems states that it covers the provision of  “a web-based reporting solution to measure and report on desk and room utilisation”. 

It says this will be provided by a physical sensor recording heat and motion, with the sensors then sending this information to the cloud where an agreed set of reports provide the occupancy data.

The contract further states that the sensors must be capable of reporting whether desks, touchdown spaces and meeting rooms are occupied or not, as well as recording the number of people entering and leaving an enclosed work area.

Union leaders have criticised the use of technology to monitor the occupancy rates of Government offices.

Head of the Public and Commercial Services union, Mark Serwotka described it as a worrying, Big Brother-style development that could be used to victimise his members who worked from home rather than in the office.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said the technology was not a tool for monitoring individuals’ office attendance.

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Malaysian Government sacks PS head

KUALA LUMPUR (December 20): The Malaysian Government has confirmed it has sacked Director-General of the Public Service Department, Mohd Shafiq Abdullah.

Chief Secretary to the Government, Zuki Ali said the decision was made after exhausting all procedures to protect the public interest, and was made after consultation with the Attorney-General's Department.

The sacking comes barely 10 months after Mr Mohd Shafiq was appointed.

He was involved in controversy in August after an Immigration Officer complained that Mr Mohd Shafiq had berated him in public. A Government committee was later formed to carry out an investigation into the incident.

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Liberian wage rise plea slapped down

MONROVIA (December 24): Liberia’s Director General of the Civil Service Agency (CSA), James Thompson has lashed out at Public Servants calling for a pay rise, saying the Government does not exist just to pay their wages.

He said people should be more focused on how Liberia could move forward instead of politicising everything.

“There are other important matters that equally have the Government’s attention rather than listening to cries about Civil Servants’ pay,” Mr Thompson said.

Public Servants in Liberia are among the lowest paid in Africa with some earning as little as US$50 ($A75) a month, leading to some employees at the Ministry of Information launching a protest in support of a pay rise.

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Union to challenge hybrid work ruling

OTTAWA (December 24): Canada’s largest Public Service union, the Public Service Alliance of Canada, says it will challenge the Federal Government’s hybrid work plan before the country’s Labour Board.

This follows Treasury Board President, Mona Fortier’s announcement that all Federal Public Servants will be returning to their offices for at least two-to-three days a week in the New Year.

The union, which represents 165,000 Public Servants, said it was opposed to a “one-size-fits-all approach” and it was seeking to ensure remote work was a part of the next collective agreement.

That agreement is under negotiation now, and the Alliance said making changes to working conditions while bargaining was happening was against the law.

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Backflip on key PNG Government job

PORT MORESBY (December 23): Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister, James Marape has restored the position of Chief Secretary to the Government, saying it would increase scrutiny of the country’s Public Service.

The position was abolished in 2020 in pursuit of what Mr Marape described as a “flatter” Public Service. He has now more or less accepted that decision was a mistake.

He said the new Chief Secretary to the Government, Ivan Pomaleu “will ensure that the Public Service is effectively functioning and Heads of Departments and Agencies are delivering according to key result areas”.

“I want to appeal to each and every one of you to do what is right for the country. We need to rise above petty issues, personal interests, fortnightly pay, and see the next generation,” the Prime Minister said.

The full International PS News service will resume on January 17 

 

 

 

 

Canadian Government orders hybrid work

OTTAWA (December 18): After weeks of indecision, the Canadian Federal Government has told its employees they must work at least two-to-three days a week in person, or between 40-to-60 per cent of their regular schedule.

The decision prompted an angry response from Public Service unions, which have been pushing to give most of their members the choice of where they worked.

President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier said the decision was necessary to create a common approach to remote work in the Federal Public Service.

"In-person work better supports collaboration, team spirit, innovation and a culture of belonging," Mr Fortier said.

"We've now seen there needs to be greater fairness and equity across our workplaces and we need consistency in how hybrid work is applied across the Federal Government."

The one-size-fits-all hybrid model will come into full effect on March 31. To allow for a smooth transition, the Government will use a phased introduction beginning on January 16.

President of the Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada, Jennifer Carr said workers had been doing their jobs effectively from home and she was not satisfied by the reasons given for the mandate.

She also said her union had been given a one-hour notice of the announcement.

"To hear the Minister say the decision was about serving Canadians, and not providing specific examples, is one of the things I find kind of disingenuous," Ms Carr (pictured) said.

“Our members are also taxpayers and want the most efficient use of Government money,” she said, alluding to past discussions around saving money by having public sector employees work from home. 

President of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, Chris Aylward echoed Ms Carr, saying members had shown they could work remotely.

"We see this as a poorly planned and knee-jerk reaction from the Government that doesn't have the best interest of workers or Canadians at heart, and it's completely at odds really with the direction this Government has been moving towards on remote work," Mr Aylward said.

However, Mayor of Ottawa, Mark Sutcliffe applauded the decision, saying it was critical to the local economy.

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Audit finds boom in Scottish office staff

EDINBURGH (December 19): An audit of Scottish Public Servants has found a huge rise in the number who are office-based, but a fall in police and fire-fighter posts.

The analysis of official figures, carried out by the Opposition Scottish Labour Party, shows an increase of 3,710 jobs in the Public Service compared to 2021. The figure amounts to a 15.8 per cent increase on the previous year.

It is starkly contrasted by other public sector areas, particularly in front-line and emergency services, where there has been a decrease of 2.3 per cent in police and fire services in the same time.

Numbers in the reserved Public Service and further education also decreased over this period.

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Concern over military’s use in strikes

LONDON (December 19): About 1,200 members of the United Kingdom military and 1,000 Public Servants are to be drafted in to cover for striking ambulance and Border Force staff over Christmas.

Some 10,000 ambulance staff in England and Wales will be on strike on 21 and 28 December in a pay dispute.

Unions say military staff are not sufficiently trained to take on ambulance roles, but Minister for Health, Steve Barclay said his number one priority was keeping patients safe.

However, Chief of Defence Staff, Sir Tony Radakin has warned against viewing troops as "the go-to option” when it came to covering strike action.

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Digital monitor for Nigerian staff

ABUJA (December 18): The Nigerian Federal Government has urged Public Servants to improve their output at work as it finishes plans to monitor their performance digitally.

Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan said the end-to-end automation process would be deployed to track performance.

“I regret that the Public Service has been tagged as redundant, ineffective, inefficient and not meeting up to its standards — so the narrative has to change,” Dr Yemi-Esan said.

She said the digital evaluation would replace the replace the annual performance evaluation system “to ensure that employee performance is linked to institutional goals and objectives”.

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Shake-up of poorly managed bureaucracy

DOUGLAS (December 17): Reforms to the top job in the Isle of Man's Public Service have been put forward to improve how senior officers are held to account.

The Council of Ministers has proposed renaming the Chief Secretary's post to Chief Executive, while giving it new performance management powers.

It comes after an independent review found "a management vacuum" where under performance had not been tackled well, within the self-governing island.

Chief Minister, Alfred Cannan said the change was needed as performance management across the Government was "just not strong enough".

The full International PS News service will resume on January 17 

 

 

‘No limits’ on Norway's public data gathering

Norway’s Police Intelligence Agency (PST) has been given permission to store all comments written on public platforms for five years and maybe more.

Following the announcement by Minister of Justice, Enger Mehl, human rights advocates condemned it as having a “chilling effect” on the public debate, while provincial data authorities claimed it would result in “limitless gathering” of potentially sensitive information.

Ms Mehl (pictured) said the PST needed to monitor and store what was written on public platforms in order to chart and uncover potential threats to Norwegian society.

“We face new and unknown threats that it is important for the PST to be able to pick up, for example, development of a violent climate of extremism,” Ms Mehl said at a press conference.

“The PST has to follow the internet, where potentially dangers players are.”

She said the Government wanted to make sure the PST was able to uncover new threats, and follow developments in extremism, espionage and possible terrorism.

Officials at Norway’s Data Protection Authority, Datatilsynet were both sceptical and critical.

Authority Director, Line Coll said the move involved limitless collection of information about Norwegian citizens’ activity on the internet, which could give the PST an intimate glimpse into everyone’s lives.

“It overlooks the fundamental principles of privacy and lacks control mechanisms that would preserve our human rights in a satisfactory manner,” Ms Coll said.

Head of the PST, Hedvig Moe said the new law would not involve any massive surveillance.

“We won’t be reading folks’ email or invade sites that are password-protected,” Ms Hedvig said.

The PST had wanted to store data for 15 years but the Government reduced that to five.

The proposal is likely to win majority support in Parliament, since Opposition parties were poised to offer PST even broader authority to store information from open sources.

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News

Canada achieves Public Service gender parity

 

Less than one in three senior Public Servants across the Governments of G20 countries are women, the Global Government Forum’s latest edition of its Women Leaders Index has found.

Only one G20 country, Canada, has reached gender parity in the top five grades of its Public Service (at 51.1 per cent), with four more are within 10 percentage points of doing so.

However, there has been improvement – the G20 mean (29.3 per cent) has increased by 1.6 percentage points since the last Index in 2020 and by six points since the first one 10 years ago.

Those leading the G20 pack behind Canada are Australia and South Africa, which tie in second place, followed by the United Kingdom and Brazil, with Mexico and the European Commission tied in fifth place.

Mexico has increased the representation of women in Public Service leadership positions the most of all G20 nations, by a dramatic 24.3 percentage points over the past decade, while South Africa has made the most improvement in the two years since the last Index — a jump of 7.2 points.

Bringing up the G20 rear are Saudi Arabia, Japan, South Korea, China and Turkey, in which representation of women in the senior Public Service is between 2.5 per cent and 11.7 per cent.

Countries including Germany, Italy, France and the United States reside in the middle of the G20 ranking, with women accounting for between 32 per cent and 38 per cent of top roles.

Though the G20 has traditionally been the main ranking in the Women Leaders Index, it also analyses representation of women in the highest grades of national Public Services in European Union and Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries.

Latvia, where women account for 56 per cent of the top tiers of its Public Service, tops the OECD ranking, while six more — Sweden, Iceland, New Zealand, Greece, Canada and Slovakia — have reached or exceeded gender parity.

More Public Service World News at World PS News | PS News

No inflation relief for UK public sector

                                    

United Kingdom Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt says Departmental budgets set in last year’s Spending Review will not be reduced. However, in-house spending will have to be reined in as soaring inflation has eroded their value.

The Chancellor used his Autumn Statement to set out plans for £55 billion ($A97.7 billion) in new savings over the next five years, largely through tax increases and spending restraint, although the National Health Service and the Department for Education will receive financial boosts.

He said Ministers planned to grow public spending, but would do it more slowly than in the rest of the economy to deal with a significant downturn in the nation’s finances, exacerbated by former Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng’s disastrous Mini-Budget in September.

“For the remaining two years of the Spending Review, we’ll protect the increases in Departmental budgets we’ve already set out in cash terms. Then grow resource spending at one per cent a year in real terms in the three years that follow,” Mr Hunt (pictured) said.

“Although Departments will have to make efficiencies to deal with inflationary pressures in the next two years, this decision means overall spending on public services will continue to rise in real terms for the next five years.”

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, John Glen and Minister for the Cabinet Office, Jeremy Quin have been tasked with running a new review to drive the efficiencies.

Director of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Paul Johnson said proposals to increase public spending by one per cent a year from 2025 onwards would still mean cuts for unprotected Departments. 

He said freezing capital spending until 2025 was “of course a real terms cut” with inflation running at 11.1 per cent for the year to October.

General Secretary of FDA union representing senior Public Servants, Dave Penman said the Government could not disguise the reality of sticking to last year’s Spending Review settlements in the face of rocketing costs.

“The Chancellor has cut spending across all Government Departments in real terms until 2025. This will only lead to one thing — further pressure on vital services that the public relies upon,” Mr Penman said.

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News

 

Long running US legal action ends exams

The fallout from legal action begun 13 years ago has resulted in the American State of Massachusetts cancelling promotional examinations for firefighters and declaring recently held examinations for police null and void.

The case in question is Tatum et al v. Commonwealth of Massachusetts, a suit from several Black or Hispanic police officers filed back in 2009, which claimed the examinations disadvantaged minority test-takers, leading to lower scores and therefore delayed or missed promotions through the centralised and highly regimented process used by many police and fire departments.

Given the vagaries of the US legal system, the matter was not completed and a decision made until last month (October), when Judge Douglas Wilkins issued a blistering finding against the State Human Resources Division (HRD).

“The evidence is very clear. It defeats any justification for HRD’s heavy reliance upon biased examinations to identify the best candidates for promotion,” the judge wrote.

“Moreover, HRD knew of clearly superior assessment methods, but continued to use the same, unnecessarily discriminatory format anyway.”

The Judge said the massive amount of evidence proving the known and unjustified disparate impact of HRD’s format “leaves no doubt in this court’s mind that the Commonwealth has interfered with the plaintiffs’ rights to consideration for promotion to police sergeant without bias due to race or national origin”.

The examinations generally happen once a year, and one — already delayed due to unrelated issues — for Boston firefighters to become District Chiefs, was scheduled to happen later this month (November).

International Association of Fire Fighters Local 718 Head, Sam Dillon said his members “had the rug pulled out from underneath them”.

He said the postponement was part of a State move to get firefighters out of the State Public Service and the protections it affords.

“The State Civil Service Commission needs to go ahead with these examinations. This is a case about cops — I don’t see the relationship,” Mr Dillon said.

Professional Fire Fighters of Massachusetts Union head, Rich MacKinnon said his organisation had engaged an attorney to file an emergency order to “investigate this matter — specifically why the police case meant that firefighter exams have to stop”.

Meanwhile, the 2009 court case drags on with a further hearing to determine liability, and a second phase of the trial to see what the judge will order as a consequence of the new ruling.

That will not happen until 20 March next year.

More Public Service news at World PS News | PS News

HK officials should be ‘neutral and patriotic'

Former Hong Kong Chief Executive, Leung Chun-ying has criticised the Government’s plan to remove a reference to ‘political neutrality’ from the Public Service Code of Conduct, saying neutrality should be a clear requirement.

However Mr Leung (pictured) said all Government employees must be patriotic and loyal to the country.

“Abandoning the expression of neutrality will only give ammunition to people who oppose us,” Mr Leung said.

He offered his own definition of political neutrality — “it means that Civil Servants cannot reject a task from supervisors based on their political beliefs, or only comply in appearance… it’s that simple”.

The former Chief Executive’s comments come after authorities announced that the term ‘political neutrality’ would be dropped from the Code of Conduct.

Addressing lawmakers at the Legislative Council, Secretary for the Civil Service, Ingrid Yeung said recent events and the international situation necessitated the change.

“The Code of Conduct should be updated to reflect the core values that Civil Servants should have,” Ms Yeung said.

Her address was her first to lawmakers since Chief Executive, John Lee presented his first policy address as Hong Kong’s leader last month.

Hong Kong employs around 175,000 Public Servants working across the various Government Departments. The city has recently seen an uptick in resignations among bureaucrats, with the number of people leaving their posts doubling from the previous year.

More world news at World PS News | PS News

Relief for US Public Service borrowers

In what might signal the end to the long-running saga of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, the United States Department of Education has announced permanent changes that will make it easier for borrowers to get relief.

Student loan borrowers pursuing this type of forgiveness can now get credit for partial, late or lump sum payments, or for payments made under a different repayment plan, as well as credit for periods in deferment and forbearance.

Announcing the changes, Secretary of Education, Miguel Cardona said his team had worked to turn Public Service Loan Forgiveness from a promise broken into a promise kept.

Established in 2007, the PSLF program allows those who work for the Government or specific non-profits to get their student loan debt cancelled after 10 years, or 120 payments.

However, from the start the path to forgiveness has been plagued with problems, making it hard to get relief.

The new changes will “reduce the red tape that riddled the PSLF program,” Mr Cardona (pictured) said.

Higher education expert, Mark Kantrowitz said before any changes to the PSLF were implemented only three per cent of borrowers who applied received loan forgiveness.

He estimated that number had increased to more than 17 per cent by September.

Mr Cardona said temporary changes to the PSLF had already helped more than 236,000 teachers, nurses, veterans, Government employees and other Public Service workers secure more than $US14 billion ($A21.6 billion) in debt relief.

“We are now introducing bold steps that will automatically move more hardworking Public Service workers closer to forgiveness and making permanent changes to reduce the red tape that riddled the PSLF program,” Mr Cardona said.

“We are as committed as ever to upholding the promise of the PSLF and ensuring borrowers who devote their careers to teaching our children, strengthening our communities, and serving our nation get the relief they’ve earned.”

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News

 

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German cyber chief sacked over Russia link

Germany’s Minister of the Interior has sacked the country’s cyber-security chief after allegations he had turned a blind eye to a firm with links to Russian security circles.

President of the German Federal Office for Information Security, Arne Schönbohm was released from his duties with immediate effect, news magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing security sources.

Spokesperson for the Minister, Nancy Faeser confirmed that Mr Schönbohm (pictured) would be barred from his office, as “necessary public trust in the neutrality and impartiality of his leadership as president of the most important German cyber-security Agency has been damaged”.

Mr Schönbohm, who has since 2016 been in charge of the Agencies overseeing the Government’s computer and communication security, had come under scrutiny after his links to a Russian company in a previous job were highlighted by Jan Böhmermann, a German comedian, in a late-night satire show.

Before heading up the Government’s cyber-security Agency, Mr Schönbohm had helped found the similarly named Cyber Security Council Germany, a lobbying group registered as a voluntary association.

 Among its members, the Cyber Security Council Germany has since 2020 listed a Berlin-based cyber-security firm, Protelion, previously known as Infotecs, a subsidiary of a Russian company founded by an ex-KGB employee who has received a medal of honour for his services from Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

“The Russian company, Infotecs that wants to protect our critical infrastructure from Russian cyber-attacks works with Russian intelligence services,” Mr Böhmermann said in his program, expressing incredulity.

“Russian agents use Infotecs, which under the name Protelion sells German companies security software.”

While the program did not allege that Mr Schönbohm had continued to keep close ties with Protelion after becoming the Government’s security chief, the revelation raised questions about a key official’s judgment at a time when concerns about the vulnerability of Germany’s critical infrastructure is running high.

After Mr Böhmermann’s program, the Cyber Security Council Germany expelled Protelion from its list of members, but rejected allegations of undue Russian influence as “absurd”.

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News

South Korean bid to halt school standards slump

South Korea’s Ministry of Education says it is to resume national evaluation of school students in an effort to reverse declining scholastic standards.

State-led academic evaluation on all students was dropped in 2017 amid claims there was too much emphasis on academic scores. However, with an increasing number of students failing to achieve the minimum level of academic attainment, the Ministry has revived the evaluation system.

It will run an "autonomous evaluation of scholastic attainments" which will be a computer-based test.

Sixth graders at elementary schools, third graders at middle schools and second graders at high schools will be subject to the test this year, expanded out to fifth graders at elementary schools and first graders at high schools next year and to all students except for first and second graders at elementary schools by 2024.

The Ministry will also run a separate system to evaluate whether students have reached a minimum level of academic achievement.

All schools have to use one of the two evaluation tools and select students that need help on studying at least two months after the new school year begins.

Shortly before the Ministry's announcement, President Yoon Suk-yeol said the Government would work on providing a “safety net of academic attainment”.

"If we neglect the education of children because of concerns about the criticism of lining the children up by their scores, Korea will have a grim future,” Mr Yoon said.

“Last year, the evaluation of scholastic attainments by high schools showed that the number of students who did not meet the level of basic academic skills for mathematics and English increased by 40 per cent compared to 2017.”

He said by reviving the national evaluation of scholastic attainments with all schools participating, an education model targeted at individual needs would emerge.

More Public Service New at World PS News | PS News

Canadian officers shun cultural awareness training

Canadian Federal Public Servants appear indifferent to a variety of Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity programs offered through the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), with the highest Department attendance being just 16 per cent.

 The CSPS offers 15 different training sessions on Indigenous issues, known as the Indigenous Training Series, but less than a fifth of Public Servants have attended any one session, according to the numbers from the CSPS.

 The most-attended session, called Reflecting on Cultural Bias: Indigenous Perspectives, has seen 51,430 Public Servants participate as of June this year.

 Other sessions, including Taking Steps Towards Indigenous Reconciliation, saw participation rates lower than one per cent.

 While employees in Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada are required to complete 15 hours of culturally-competent learning each year, there is no Government-wide directive for mandatory training on Indigenous topics.

 A former Federal employee and a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit alleging systemic discrimination in the Federal Public Service, Letitia Wells said the low participation rates were disappointing, but not surprising.

 "Confronting racism when you are part of an organisation that has that very racism embedded as part of its culture is painful," Ms Wells said.

 A statement from President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier said the CSPS provided a number of training resources on Indigenous topics, but Departments were responsible for determining what was made mandatory.

 Meanwhile, a recent survey has found Federal workers are increasingly cynical, sceptical and disillusioned about the idea of reporting wrongdoing in the Public Service.

Research firm Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc. found that pessimism was more “palpable and widespread” now than it was before the pandemic, and bureaucrats have become more likely to fear reprisals for whistle-blowing.

The report was delivered to the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, which investigates serious abuses within the Federal Government.

The Commissioner, Joe Friday, said there was a maze of oversight mechanisms available to Public Servants and it could be discouraging or exhausting to figure out where to lodge a complaint.

“Public Servants are feeling more isolated and disconnected during the pandemic, making it more difficult to feel confident in coming forward, let alone to gather the sort of documentation that whistle-blowers need,” Mr Friday (pictured) said.

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News

 

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Black Canadian officers take complaint to UN

Black Canadian Public Servants have filed a complaint with the United Nations, alleging their civil rights have been violated.

The complaint by the Black Class Action Secretariat has been sent to the UN Commission for Human Rights Special Rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

It follows a class action lawsuit the same group filed against the Canadian Government accusing it of systemic racism, discrimination and employee exclusion.

Executive Director of the Secretariat, Nicholas Marcus Thompson said the complaint “details systemic and anti-Black racism in hiring and promotions within Canada's Federal Public Service".

"With this complaint, we are elevating Canada's past failures and failure to act in the present to an international body," Mr Thompson (pictured) said.

He said he hoped the UN Special Rapporteur would investigate the complaint and call on Canada to meet its international obligations to Black employees.

“We want a plan to be established to increase opportunities for Black women in the Government and develop specific targets for hiring and promoting Black workers,” Mr Thompson said.

Amnesty International has thrown its weight behind the complaint, noting that 70 per cent of the 1,500 employees who had joined the class action were Black women.

Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, Ketty Nivyabandi called on the Government to establish a designated category under the Employment Equity Act for Black employees. The Government has launched a task force to review this legislation.

President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier agreed that far too many Black Canadians still faced discrimination and hate.

"The Government is actively working to address harm and to create a diverse and inclusive Public Service free from harassment and discrimination,” Ms Fortier said.

“We have passed legislation, created support and development programs, and published disaggregated data, but we know there is still more to do."

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Report highlights aging Greek bureaucrats

Greece ranks third in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the percentage of its Public Servants aged more than 55 years, a new report from the OECD has found.

More specifically, while the average for the OECD countries is 26 per cent, in Greece that percentage is 37 per cent.

With 48 per cent, Italy has the highest percentage of middle-aged Public Servants, followed by Spain with 46 per cent.

In Greece, the implementation of restrictive measures on new recruitment in the public sector during the decade of the country’s financial crisis certainly played a role as new blood was not allowed to enter.

However, a public administration official says the biggest problem is not age but mentality.

“When I told an employee many years ago I wanted to show him how to make computerised receipts and stop writing them by hand, he replied: ‘What do I need these for? In 20 years I will retire’,” the unnamed official said.

According to the OECD, countries with older bureaucrats are more likely to experience difficulties in enacting necessary policies.

Experts note that Public Services must be able to cope with the challenge of digital transformation on the one hand, but also with the new demands of citizens in their relationship with the State on the other.

“As the entire population of the European Union, and Greece in particular, is aging, it will need more and more help and support,” the OECD report states.  

“Public officials will also need to develop the ability to help and interact effectively with citizens. In particular, an increasing number of necessary documents can now be searched for digitally, which requires different processing times.”

The report said that the familiar phrase of Public Servants: “We need another document” will no longer be used as an alibi for delay.

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