“Unveiling” for the evaluation of public services by citizens will take place this morning at a meeting Kyriakos Mitsotakis has convened at the Mansion House with the relevant ministers of Interior Theodore Livanios and Digital Governance Dmitris Papastergiou, who will then specify the details of the platform at a press conference.

The axiologisi.ypes.gov.gr platform has been open since yesterday and citizens can log in with their personal passwords. About 4 million citizens registered in the National Communication Register will participate in the new rating system, and citizens are asked to rate on a scale from 0 to 10 a number of public services.

For example, as soon as one enters the platform, one is asked to give their opinion on the ADEA, the EFKA, the DYPA, the Land Registry, the Migrant Permit Services and the Public Transportation. Citizens are also asked about the digital services of gov.gr, myHealth, electronic prescription and the digital services.

Citizens are also invited to have their say on gov.gr services such as the affidavit, criminal record copy, ID card appointment, Gov Gr Wallet and more. Local government services are also put under the microscope, such as the state of cleanliness, the state of the road network, the municipality’s digital services, electric lighting and so on

Finally, citizens are asked to answer which public services they have visited or used in the last 12 months, and whether they have a child or children in kindergarten or at a school level. They are also asked what other public service they would like to see digitised.

The biggest poll

Competent government sources refer to the “largest-scale poll” ever conducted regarding citizens’ views on public administration, and also to the very critical data that will be collected. According to reports, the government’s plan is to send out questionnaires every six months, probably every April-May and every October-November, gradually “building” a database for all the departments being evaluated.

Based on this way of evaluation, services or procedures that have low scores will be identified, and it will also show why citizens give a “low grade” to the service provided, and the State will be able to plan targeted improvements.

At the same time, it is possible to analyze the results by the assessed service, by spatial area (municipality, region, and even by postal code) and by age group.

New system

According to government sources, the system to be launched brings about a substantial “paradigm shift” in the evaluation of the Government, which until recently resulted in practically 98% of civil servants being evaluated in the category of excellent or very adequate.

The point of intersection is located in 2023, when the new evaluation system was implemented for the first time, which from this year is expected to be improved with the participation of citizens. Reportedly, of the 166,350 evaluations submitted, 54,650 employees were initially classified as high-performing, while a review using artificial intelligence tools found that more than 39,000 of them did not ultimately meet the high-performance criteria.

Citizen evaluation is being put in as an additional “filter” in order to more accurately diagnose problem areas and functions of the public sector. The government is well aware that for years society has distrusted the evaluation of the public sector, so they believe that it is up to the government to convince it that it can bring about effective changes in its operation.