The basic provisions of the Interior Ministry’s draft bill, which aims to reform the disciplinary system of public employees and employees of the wider public sector and the strengthening of the extroversion of the public sector, were presented today at the meeting of the Council of Ministers by Interior Minister Todoris Livanios and Deputy Minister Vivi Charalabogiannis.

The present draft law seeks to accelerate the disciplinary procedure and the specialization of the officials in charge of administering disciplinary justice. It is envisaged, in replacement of the existing disciplinary councils, to establish a new disciplinary body composed only of full-time State Legal Council officials. The new body, after sending the file with the data from the competent bodies of the Administration, operating either in a three- or five-member composition, depending on the case, will decide in the first and last instance and its decisions will be appealed only to the competent courts.

At the same time, the role and involvement of the National Transparency Authority in the disciplinary process is maintained and strengthened.

In addition, solutions offered by modern technology are being utilized: an information system is being created to monitor the progress of cases, which will interoperate with the “Human Resources Management System of the Public Administration”, and telematic applications are being used so that the disciplinary procedure and meetings can be conducted remotely to save time.

Finally, amendments are being made to the procedure applied in the administration of disciplinary justice, so as to shorten time-consuming steps and set strict deadlines at each stage. In this context, a mechanism for monitoring the administration of disciplinary justice is created and measures are introduced to ensure accountability in cases of unjustified delays.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in his introductory remarks to the Cabinet noted that “problems are not lacking” and referred to the “initiative for the proper functioning of the state so that those who swear under oath do not go unpunished and failures to be avoided are corrected.”

After recalling then that changes in the Disciplinary Boards “had been on my mind 10 years ago when I was a minister” he spoke of “2,500 cases stagnating in the Disciplinary Boards and the decision time can be up to 5 years. This situation cannot be accepted. The new proposal will involve more officials of the state’s legal council and we are setting deadlines for final decisions. This is a profoundly political choice for speed, transparency and full accountability in government.”