According to AMNA, the meeting focused on the restructuring of ministries and agencies and on the mobility scheme that will see some civil servants transferred to cover needs elsewhere and others placed on a gradual layoff programme.

“We ratified the relevant decisions,” Mitsotakis said, “in order for the country to keep its timelines and place on mobility 12,500 civil servants by the end of September.” He added that mobility is an obligation Greece has but will also lead to improved use of existing staff and added that in the first phase of the plan already carried out, all civil servants were transferred to services that were short-staffed.

Mitsotakis described the institution of mobility as a positive tool that will help to better exploit the potential of the public sector and not a memorandum obligation of Greece, protothema.gr writes.

The meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, was also attended by government Vice President and Foreign Minister Evangelos Venizelos and several ministers whose ministries’ restructuring was under review.

According to enet.gr, during the government meeting yesterday, a new list was finalised containing the names of 8,099 civil servants who will be placed in the mobility scheme by the end of next month.

Civil servants placed in the mobility scheme will be involuntarily transferred or paid 75% of their already-reduced salary for up to eight months and then fired if another position can’t be found for them. The decision brings the total number of public service employees to be placed on the scheme to 12,500.

The list draws on staff in all 17 ministries, with the largest number – the 3,000 members of the municipal police – coming from the interior ministry.

Last month, 4,401 civil service employees (2,114 teachers, 2,234 school guards and janitors and 53 staff from the administrative reform ministry) were informed that they were being transferred.

It represents the biggest move to transfer civil service staff in recent Greek history.

Government sources said that “there is still no such request from the Greek side, nor a discussion with troika” but we are considering examining the issue in the near future, provided that “the Greek side will be completely ready” to meet the prerequisites to be met until then.

Such a development could possibly mean that troika might not be required to come back to Athens in June if the government proceeds timely with some issues provided by the memorandum, like the numbering of all transactions with the State with a single number (which will integrate Tax Identification Number, ID and other identification numbers), changes in tax laws (simplification), etc.

Meanwhile, Adminstrative Reform Minister Antonis Manitakis and his associates are currently working on the final details nfor the preparation of the bill regarding changes in the public sector, tovima.gr writes.

According to the plan, the ministries will have about 50% less placements and reduced staff. The new bill will focus on effectiveness, efficiency, fiscal benefits and reducing operating cost criteria, while emphasizing is job placement organization and recruitment. The main focus is on merit and the qualitative improvement of staff and services provided.

One of the main aspects of the new bill is the issuing of presidential decrees. The government plans to restructure each ministry, so that they are more functional and effective. The detailed description of each position, along with the responsibilities and duties of each directorate, department and position are critical.

The goals of each department and ministry will become the goals of each employee, so staff will be evaluated on the degree to which they completed their tasks. These evaluations will determine whether an employee will face a dismissal or a transfer to another department.

Essentially, the new bill contains the tools by which a number of other reforms are to take place, such as the 15,000 dismissals by the end of 2014. The bill also ensures that for each compulsory dismissal there will be one recruitment. About 10,000 successful applicants who participated in ASEP competitions will cover these recruitments.

Meanwhile, the “surplus” employees from positions and departments that are to merge or be abolished will be inducted in a mobility scheme for transfer to other positions, based on staff evaluation and needs. The employees from public law entities will be given incentives to retire, while employees from private law entities will likely face outright dismissal. Along with employees facing misconduct charges, private law employees in the civil sector are the first to face dismissal.

The omnibus bill was passed by 168-123 vote on Sunday night, with the support of the three parties comprising Greece’s ruling coalition.

About 2,000 civil servants will be laid off by the end of May, another 2,000 by the end of the year and 11,500 by the end-2014, a total of 15,500.

The measures in the bill had been settled with the troika earlier this month. Greece had to adopt them to qualify to receive its next tranche of loans worth 8.8bn euros.

The legislation included other reforms, such as the number of installments debtors to the state will have to pay the tax and social security contributions they owed, according to eKathimerini.

Athens now expects to receive 8.8 billion euros by mid-May.

Eurozone officials will now meet on Monday to approve the release of 2.8bn euros, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said, according to Reuters news agency. Eurozone finance ministers will then meet on May 13 to release a further 6bn euro installment, he added.

Although the number of public sector employees has fallen steadily since the start of the crisis, this is the first time that the government will directly dismiss bureaucrats, eKathimerini writes. They will, however, be replaced by new hires.

Greeks protested in front of the parliament against the government’s plan to lay off thousands of public-sector workers in advance of the voting.

According to protothema.gr, the Premier set thered lines clarifying that the government will not implement new measures, as the Greek economy and society cannot bear them.

Leaving the Maximos mansion, Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras said to reporters that a substantial progress in the negotiations was achieved but he also underlined that many issues remain still open.

“I believe that we will reach an agreement in the next few days,” the FinMin said. “I can’t say how soon this will be because negotiations are ongoing.”

However, on Friday evening, The Guardian writes, Athens’ normally mild-mannered finance minister, Yannis Stournaras, reportedly lashed out at mission chiefs from the EU, ECB and IMF during a heated exchange in his office, telling them they could “take the keys” to the economy ministry if they continued to demand more austerity from a nation experiencing a sixth straight year of recession.

Emerging from the building, the economics professor uncharacteristically labeled the talks as “very difficult” and gave a taste of his own frustration. “The negotiations for the next loan tranches are still very difficult. I can assure you that things are not simple at all,” he said.

After troika representatives abruptly cancelled a meeting with Stournaras late on Saturday, Prime Minister Antonis Samaras tried to smooth over the cracks.

One of the main topics of the government-troika meetings was the transfer plan in the public sector. The government agrees to proceed with the dismissal of perjury public employees by June and those removed to be replaced with an equal number to be recruited through ASEP. While there is political agreement on this issue, the problem is the time schedule does not pan out due to the slow pace of the public sector, protothema.gr reports.

The second major issue has been the National Bank-Eurobank merger and their recapitalization, with the Greek government insisting that it should continue uninterrupted and unchanged despite the delay in collection of amounts required from the private shareholders.

The two sides also discussed the adjustment doses for amounts owed to pension funds and tax offices and how to bridge the financial gap of EUR 2.7 billion for 2013-14. New measures to cover the gap are currently being rejected since they would not pass from a parliamentary voting.

According to protothema.gr, layoffs of civil servants have not been withdrawn from the table of debate although all three parties of the government assure there will be no layoffs but instead they will proceed faster with the transfer programme in the public sector.

The issue of reducing wages in the private sector through the end of sectoral agreements is also back on the table, although the government clarified that the minimum wage will not be affected at this time.

The negotiation with the troika heads takes place in the wider European context created by the political instability in Italy. Government staffers say the austerity programme should be eased and in no case include any new measures.

However, the government believes that the situation requires careful handling because there should not be an impression of programme revision, an event highly unlikely to be accepted by Berlin and Brussels. Coalition leaders believe that troika will play its game but not exceed its limits.

But the social climate deteriorates as the measures for uncollectible debts to the public advance and in view of the tax return statements for 2013.

Besides, troika blames the government for loopholes in the tax collection mechanism, which will naturally further burden the entire society and not just the tax evaders.

“The labour reserve plan will proceed,” a source told the agency. “Last time simply was not implemented,” he added. “This is a measure that may not bring immediate and dramatic savings (in expenses), but will lend credibility to all our efforts for reform,” another source stressed.

Finance Ministry’s economic team is expected to present details of the plan to the political leaders. However, the labour reserve issue is expected to create new tension in the coalition, as PASOK and Democratic Left are opposed to the measure, saying they are willing to honour their pre-election commitments.

According to Finance Ministry sources, Greece expects to get its next tranche of international aid immediately after lenders give their final verdict in mid-September as regards the progress of the bailout programme. More T-bills are expected to be issued later in August to cover a EUR 3.2 billion government bond that matures August 20.

Deputy Finance Minister Christos Staikouras said the EC-ECB-IMF troika will return to Athens in early September and complete their review by the middle of the month.

“If that happens and the process is completed by September 14 -this is the framework we’re working within, that’s what we’ve agreed to -then obviously the tranche, if the review is positive as we expect it to be, will come immediately after,” Staikouras said, according to Reuters. Asked if he expected the tranche to be disbursed by the end of September, Staikouras replied: “Immediately after means that if the review is positive, this will open the path for the next tranche.”