Athens News Agency: News in English, 00-12-20
CONTENTS
[01] PM - surprise visits to state services
[01] PM - surprise visits to state services
19/12/2000 23:47:56
During surprise visits to three different state services in Athens on
Tuesday, Prime Minister Costas Simitis said he had noted staff
shortages that the government planned to correct.
Accompanied by Labour Minister Tassos Yiannitsis, the prime minister
carried turned up unannounced at a state nursery in Agia Varvara, the
Korydallo branch of the Social Security Foundation (IKA) and a branch
of the Manpower Employment Organisation (OAED) in Peristeri.
In a press conference afterward, Simitis said he was generally pleased
with what he saw but noted staff shortages in both OAED and IKA, while
the nursery was apparently oversubscribed and unable to accept all the
children in the area. He said that he would continue to carry out such
surprise visits, in order to gain an accurate picture of how state
services worked - since these were a reflection of how the government's
policies worked.
The main problems in OAED, he said, were personal services for
citizens, created a lack of staff, rather than organisational
deficiencies. He said the government planned to restructure OAED to
make it more efficient in fighting unemployment.
He also noted staff shortages at IKA, including shortages of medical
specialists in certain fields, and announced that the government would
go ahead with large-scale hiring of new staff, as demanded by IKA staff
and management.
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