Cyprus Mail: Press Review in English, 99-02-11

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From: The Cyprus Mail at <http://www.cynews.com/>

Thursday, February 11, 1999

Should civil servants work more or less

WORKING habits in the civil service and one Greek Cypriot woman's continuing struggle to make Turkey pay for invading her land in Kyrenia grabbed the headlines yesterday.

Phileleftheros followed up on the findings of an opinion poll on the state of the civil service that they commissioned and released earlier in the week. The survey showed most people believed the standard of service offered by government offices was dropping and nepotism was rife in the civil service.

Finance Minister Christodoulos Christodoulou, in an exclusive interview with the wide-circulation daily, agreed with the poll's findings that service in the public sector left much to be desired. He proposed that government employees work two or three afternoons a week rather than the current one.

The minister did not deny that nepotism was a problem in the civil service. "No one could claim that there have not been and are not efforts by one person to talk to another in an effort to help someone," Christodoulou was quoted as saying.

He also called on civil servants' union Pasydy to look at the whole issue of wages and working conditions afresh.

But the opinions of Pasydy general secretary Glafcos Hadjipetrou, also reported by the paper, could not have been more different.

His response to the survey findings was that, yes, there was a need to change working hours but the necessary adjustment was to abolish Thursday afternoon work. This afternoon was totally unproductive and nothing but a hassle for civil servants, he said.

Most civil servants were honest and hard-working, he said.

Nepotism, Hadjipetrou said, was a problem that parties had to take the blame for. They were always working to get "their people" appointed and promoted, he said.

The Pasydy man said people should stop picking on civil servants.

Simerini and other papers gave front-page coverage to the continuing Titina Loizidou case. Turkey and Turkish Cypriot leader Rauf Denktash had failed in their attempt to avoid having to pay Loizidou compensation for occupying her land in Kyrenia since 1974, the paper said.

The Council of Europe (CoE), which has ordered Turkey to pay Loizidou damages, had rejected a Denktash proposal for settling the matter by agreeing a framework for exchange of properties between Greek and Turkish Cypriots on either side of the divide, the paper reported.

© Copyright Cyprus Mail 1999

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