“The selective use of data and statistics, unfortunately, obscures and misinforms rather than responsibly informs public opinion. And the truth is that the opposition has been caught many times “cooking” the data regarding the temporary associates/consultants hired for a term by members of the government, MPs and local government officials,” State Minister Akis Skertos said in a post on social media.
“What half a lie?” the minister asks, adding: “That the number of temporary employees of the state – where state is implied to be the government and where temporary special advisers, special advisers and scientific advisers are implied – has increased by 673 (or 25%) since 2019 to date, from 2,716 in May 2019 to 3,389 in January 2026.”
“What’s the (dumb) cunning and the malpractice?” Mr. Skertsos continues and adds: “The necessary additional information is not given on this point that three categories of government officials are entitled to have temporary employees under the law:
-Members of the government (ministers, deputy ministers, secretaries general and special secretaries)
-The elected members of parliament
-The mayors, deputy mayors and general secretaries of the municipalities”
“Therefore, in order to have an accurate picture of the time trend of temporary employees over time, we need to evaluate the number of temporary employees in each individual category by month and year,”
“What is the objective truth given by the data of the Ministry of Interior’s human resources register?” says Skertos, adding:
“As of May 2019, the total number of temporary employees was 2,716 distributed as follows:
-1052 of the members of the SYRIZA government
-1085 of the OTA
-579 of MPs.
In January 2026 the total number of temporary employees was 3,389 divided as follows:
-1054 of the members of the SW government
-1767 of the OTAs
-568 of MPs.
MPs’ secondments have decreased by 11. And the post-employees of the local authorities have increased by 682.”
“Why did this increase in the number of post-employed in the local authorities happen?”, the Minister asks, because, as he says, “in 2019, the government of the New Democracy responded positively to the reasonable request of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece and legislated the creation of the position of general secretary in municipalities with fewer than 20.000 inhabitants as well as the establishment of deputy mayor positions in small municipalities. These new positions of the local authorities have the right to hire temporary employees. These are decisions of vital importance for the proper functioning of small municipalities that lack permanent staff to provide basic services.”
And the Minister goes on to ask another question: “But is the operation of the municipalities supported by temporary employees?”
Giving the answer: “As of 2019, 13,000 recruitments of permanent employees in the local authorities have been approved by the Ministry of Interior. In any case, it is very important to support with all possible tools especially the small municipalities of the country along with their permanent staffing.”
As Skeetsos goes on to write, the government in 2019 legislated three things to improve the legality and transparency around the hiring of post-employees:
“Prohibited the hiring of relatives in the political offices of officials to make more meritocratic choices.
It set for the first time a horizontal uniform rule of maximum number of temporary employees for all government ministries, replacing the hitherto anarchic multi-speed regime that was in place in each ministry.
and concludes by writing: “The truth therefore is this and this alone. Any other attempt to distort these facts is clearly fake news.”
