Breaking the civil service

It is truly disheartening to see officials in important civil service posts who carry out their duties effectively and responsibly even in the most difficult of times being pushed out.

With so many examples of this to point to right now, we can no longer talk about isolated incidents, but rather a phenomenon, whereby the handful of decent public sector managers that the country did have are being sacrificed for the sake of appointing as many cronies as possible to key posts.

Greece had made some progress in this area over the past few years, creating hope that a mentality that had persisted for decades was on the way out, but in a few short months it appears that we are turning the clock back to the cursed decade of the 1980s, when the civil service was treated by political parties like a fiefdom that could be ruled by the good old boys.

If there is one reform that should be endorsed by all parties committed to democracy, it is this: the imposition of a system of public appointments that is completely transparent and rewards the best and brightest.