Mitsotakis turns to Supreme Court as more mayors resist evaluation

Administrative Reform Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis is on Thursday to forward to Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani the details of five mayors who have refused to provide the government with data for the evaluation of civil servants.

The move, which the minister heralded on Wednesday in comments on Mega TV channel, fueled tensions further between the government and SYRIZA as new Attica Governor Rena Dourou, who is affiliated with the leftists, appeared to be building a front against a public service evaluation scheme.

Mitsotakis is to forward Koutzamani the files relating to the municipalities of Halandri, Zografou, Larissa, Nikaia and Patra where officials have obstructed public administration inspectors from entering to obtain the data that municipal officials have refused to submit. The mayors of Athens, Thessaloniki, Piraeus, Aspropyrgos and Rethymno, on the other hand, have cooperated with state inspectors.

In his comments to Mega, Mitsotakis blasted Dourou for resisting efforts to review public sector employment contracts and for insisting that the evaluation scheme, one of the troika’s many demands, is illegal. “How can she talk about legality when she refuses to enforce a law passed in Parliament?” Mitsotakis told the station. “Law abidance cannot be a la carte.”

On a visit to President Karolos Papoulias on Wednesday, Mitsotakis played down the growing tensions over the civil service scheme as a “small crossing of swords” but noted that he was determined for the law to be enforced.

The number of municipalities refusing to cooperate with the government over the evaluation of civil servants is growing. Apart from the 19 that had stated from last week that they would not send their employees’ details to the Administrative...