Most agree in Cyprus that the practice of flawless work for nine out of 10 civil servants simply cannot continue and this seems to be the conclusion of the draft report too, in hard facts and figures. A committee made up of Finance Minister Haris Georgiades, Labour Minister Zeta Emilianidou and Justice Minister Ionas Nicolaou will closely look into what’s been suggested and send final notes, corrections or additions, so that World Bank technocrats can incorporate into the script accordingly and draft the final version. This is expected around June and as media sources say implementation will be immediate.

Civil service union PASYDY has voiced strong opposition in the recent past to performance criticism and the same sources make clear that this time it will not be any different. Restructuring the civil service and removing weaknesses and inadequacies has been one of the international lenders’ main demands and was brought about again during their latest evaluation round on the island in late January and early in February 2014.

A setback for the government in the modernisation process was the resignation of public sector reform commissioner Lambrianidou, for personal reasons, which is believed to be the fact that she has close links to Diko President Papadopoulos and barring a spectacular turn, the party will be out of the government. Last October, PASYDY had claimed that her appointment was unconstitutional as she was also a civil servant and filed an appeal with the Supreme Court. As a response, President Anastasiades had then told the civil servants union that the reform process would go through either with or without them. Now it seems that the government and PASYDY are in for another sparring round.

Source: InCyprus