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Six months after being appointed manager of the National Television of Greece (ERT), Mr. George Gambritsos suddenly resigned for personal reasons. Mr. Gambritsos informed his colleagues yesterday during the regular meeting of the Management Board of ERT that he has submitted his resignation to the Minister of Culture Pavlos Gerulanos on 15 July, who accepted it. The former manager will continue to fulfill his obligations till the end of the month and the Minister of Culture stressed that “in this particularly difficult period for the country he (Mr. Gambritsos – editor note) worked hard and managed, in cooperation with the Management Board, to lay the foundations for the reorganization of the national television.” Mr. Gerulanos noted that after the budget revision, the ERT television accounted a surplus of € 30 million for the first time in its operation.

Recently Mr. Gambritsos has been exhausted by the state of ERT as problems came one after another, says Elevterotipiya Journal. Some argue that the delay of the Ministry of the Interior to solve the problems with contract assigned employees broke the camel’s back. Therefore, those whose contracts were completed in June are eagerly awaiting the announcement of 800 jobs, which include some correspondents in key positions. This prevents some issues related to the upcoming television season from being solved, said Elevterotipiya.

Mr. Gambritsos announced that the reasons for leaving are personal and have nothing to do with supervising bodies, nor with his colleagues, “... the issue of employees who work on contracts is about to be resolved, the foundations for economic reorganization of the television are set” he added. After informing the Management Board of the television on his resignation, he made a report for the past six months, in which he was manager and during which he worked primarily to reduce the huge amounts wasted from the television. He has drawn a staff register, prepared a program of different vision, fixed the website of the television and equipped the ERT with software for continuous staff assessment on the base of transparent procedures.

ERT’s manager presented a table with basic data on the salaries of the staff consisting of 3 420 people. It is evident that the two executive managers of the television received almost € 30 000 a month, but their positions were cut by Minister Gerulanos. The wages of the “team” of special advisers, most positions of which were cut, have reached € 89 000 in July 2009, while the current amount to be paid for their services is just € 8 362 a month. It is noted in the table that there were 4 people with monthly salaries above € 5 856 in July 2009. Currently, no one receives such a high salary as this amount is provided solely for general managers. Managers’ salaries are € 3 903, employees receive a maximum of € 2 200, 88 people receive between € 2 500-3 000 and 31 employees receive more than € 3 000.

Ministry of Culture is now obliged to announce contest for the position of manager of ERT again. Meanwhile, the attorney Thanasis Papageorgiu is assigned Chairman of the Management Board of the television who will take executive duties temporarily. Until the appointment of new manager, Mr. Papageorgiu and two other members of the board of ERT - Mr. Stelios Stefanou - economist, and Mr. Georgandrea Zanno – lawyer, will sign decisions.