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The Greek government is starting, as an alternative measure, an ambitious reform programme to shrink government spending in order to avoid massive lay-offs in the public sector, as insisted on by the supervisory Troika. This was made clear after the meeting of the Ministry of Administrative Reform, attended by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, Minister of Administrative Reform Antonis Manitakis and Finance Minister Yiannis Stournaras.

The aim is, initially, to decrease the operating expenses of the state by 30%, which would be achieved through the restructuring of all the ministries with no exception. This would be done via assessment of their structures, massive closures and mergers of institutions, closing of all commissions in which payments are received, as well as economy of resources from the rent expenses of the services.

According to the government, the shrinking of the public sector through saving resources and decreasing public expenses by 30% could be an "equivalent measure", that could help to avoid laying off state employees.

In a statement, the prime-minister reiteration his intention to personally undertake the task of monitoring the administrative reform and the assessment of the public administration, to which the government attaches a lot of importance on the way towards fiscal recovery. "The aim is to achieve results regarding better service for the citizens, economy of resources and the struggle with bureaucracy", emphasized Samaras.

As the Minister of Administrative Reform Antonis Manitakis shared, in the following days Prime Minister Samaras will send a letter to all the ministries, in which prominence will be given to the importance of the administrative reform concerning the economy, business and the citizens, and the ministers will be required to speed up the respective procedures.

In addition, as became clear from Manitakis's statement, another aim of the government is to hasten the procedures of the services and employees' assessment in the state sector in order to achieve instant results in the state structures' decrease by 30%, which would also lead to the respective decrease in the state expenses.

''I expect changes in the administration", said the Prime Minister at the beginning of the meeting, and stressed that in the state administration way should be made for the most capable and the most prepared.

"The Financial Ministry also anchors its hopes on the administrative reform", noted, in turn, Minister Stournaras.

After the end of the meeting, Minister Manitakis repeated that not a single employee would be discharged, but transfers of employees would take place. For this purpose, all the resources, foreseen in the existing  legislation, related to the transfer of employees, would be used. The Minister of Administrative Reform added that the authority relies on the preliminary work, done by the Greek services, together with the European Commission's Task Force, for supporting the reforms in Greece in order to shrink the state expenses.

Therefore, it is expected:

Firstly, to use "Pangalos's list" (in which the ex-minister had included 390 state employees to whom he had sent letters requesting to be informed about what services they perform and what expenses they have), as well as to scrutinize the proposals for the closure or merger of state structures. According to sources, the Ministry of Administrative Reform already has a list of 60 organizations which have to be closed immediately.

Secondly, together with the acceleration of the structures' assessment procedures, use will be made of the work executed by the former Minister of Administrative Reform Dimitris Repas and related to the changes in the structures and the functions of the ministries through the closure of departments, which are thought to be unnecessary, or those with overlapping functions.

Thirdly, the need will be emphasized to lessen bureaucracy. For this purpose, a forthcoming € 1 million contract will be signed with the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. This contract foresees that employees of the Organization will offer measures for the diminishment of the administrative burden in 13 economic sectors by 2013. Bearing in mind that the bureaucracy in Greece costs € 20 billion, it is expected that the benefits for the country's development and investments will be huge.