Gov’t accused of surplus hirings at Rosco
Within a period of just 14 months, the government is accused of making 424 hirings that have more than doubled the number of staff at state-owned railway carriage maintenance firm Rosco, which is about to be privatized.
On Monday, New Democracy vice president Costis Hatzidakis brought up the issue of the above hirings, made between December 2016 and January 2018, at the railway firm which in December 2016 employed just 400 people.
Hatzidakis tabled a parliamentary question on the matter to Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos and Transport Minister Christos Spirtzis, citing data from the government’s own Diavgia website.
Notably, while Rosco is set to be sold to private investors, state privatization fund TAIPED has not made any announcements regarding the increase in the company’s staff numbers.
Hatzidakis alleges that the government has funded the hirings through the state budget. He claims it boosted Rosco’s revenues from railway service operator Trainose for carriage maintenance, and then, to avoid burdening Trainose with the extra cost, offset it with the rental fees Trainose is supposed to pay to state railway property company Gaiaose. If his claims are correct, then Gaiaose will have to account for the deficit in its coffers.
