Cyprus has managed to promote important reforms and launch public investments through the Recovery Plan, with more than 40 sponsorship projects announced. The amount available through the sponsorship projects is €460 million. The country has received €262 million from the European fund, with additional tranches expected to be disbursed later this year.
– Bureaucratic inefficiency in state services leads to delays in processing citizens’ applications.
– Almost 20,000 applications are pending at town planning authorities and 100,000 cases are open at Lands and Surveys offices.
– Applications for benefits and pensions take months to be processed.
– Deputies are spending 80% of their time dealing with citizens’ application delays.
– Interior Minister attributes delays to incomplete forms, understaffing, and poor digitalization.
– Evaluation of public employees is unrelated to deliverables and meeting targets.
– Government has failed to improve service to citizens due to fear of Pasydy, lack of service culture, and slow digitalization.
– Christodoulides government has not taken significant action to improve service to citizens.
Pleas were made to disregard civil service evaluations for 2023, as discussions in parliament about the new evaluation system occurred without data, according to civil service head Elena Oikonomidou Azina. The civil service union Pasydy supported this stance, suggesting promotions based on the 2023 evaluations should be trial-based and not fully relied upon due to expected appeals and potential functioning issues within the civil service. They reported that one out of every ten workers evaluated has filed an objection, and there were rumors that appeal-reviewers were instructed not to consider appeals of evaluations marked 8 or higher without needing to provide reasons for their decisions. Pasydy submitted a memorandum requesting a trial application of the evaluation system and highlighted issues with the system to the president on June 23 and the finance minister on September 19. They aim to improve the new system rather than revert to the old one, citing poor preparation and training for evaluators, and instances of threats made to evaluators and evaluated civil servants.
Trade unions representing civil servants in Cyprus have demanded the new evaluation system for promotions be paused due to chaos and misunderstandings it has caused. They suggest implementing it on a trial basis in 2023, without affecting 2024 promotions. The unions reported issues with the system, including untrained evaluators and potential for formal objections by civil servants. Pasydy union leader Stratis Matthaiou emphasized the need to refine the system rather than revert to the old one, citing poor preparation and instances of threats. The new system has negatively impacted interpersonal relations within the civil service, according to Andreas Louka of Pasydy. Legal challenges to promotion decisions are anticipated. Instances of extreme stress and threats towards evaluators were mentioned. Vasiliki Antoniadou of the Public Service Commission and Giorgos Panteli of the finance ministry defended the new system as a more meritocratic approach that assesses skills over seniority, aiming to improve service quality.