Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Wednesday welcomed what he described as two "extremely interesting" presentations at the Maximos Mansion, including one on the public's own evaluation of public services, and the results of an internal performance evaluation of civil servants in 2024.
"A month ago, we announced our decision to give citizens, for the first time, the option to evaluate the services of central government and local authorities with a single goal: to continuously improve the public sector.
Sixty-five thousand citizens participated in the largest public survey ever conducted. A mirror of reality, as experienced by the citizens," said Mitsotakis.
"Now it is up to us to translate the results of this major survey into actions that will upgrade public services and help us build stronger bonds and relationships of trust. As the data showed, there are no significant geographical differences in the evaluations. Certain specific issues do arise that concern particular areas, such as the road network on our islands," the prime minister continued.
"We now have an initial picture of how citizens perceive things. If that perception could be put into words, it would be: something is changing, but there is still a lot of work to be done. We can - and must - build a modern state. At the core of this effort lies measurement and evaluation. This is the reference point for all our initiatives.
Those who reject measurement and evaluation within the public sector are essentially refusing to be held accountable to citizens for their actions. The data on the progress of evaluations is telling. Compare the figures from 2019 to those of 2024: under the old law, 97% of public servants were rated as excellent. In reality, there was no true evaluation.
When we talk about specific goals, they are tied to each employee’s specific role. We are also assessing the use of artificial intelligence tools".
And he added: "This is also the first time that bonuses have been established and given. There is a framework of 40 million euros. It is significant both at the individual employee level and at the organisational unit level.
Yesterday, we had a very interesting internal meeting on progress with the land registry. We have a duty to reward the best performers.
We will continue citizen evaluation initiatives for frontline services, focusing on specific sectors. We want citizens, for example, to share their opinions about healthcare services when they leave hospitals.
You will see this very soon. The goal is never punitive - it is to constantly improve and to identify problems."
Concluding, the prime minister underlined: "We know the state often frustrates us. But we can change it through actions that pleasantly surprise. None of this happened by chance. It took a lot of work, a systematic effort.
We looked in the mirror with courage and honesty - we saw things we liked and others we didn’t."
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