EL 
EN 
The Conference was organized by the Ministry of Interior, the National Transparency Authority (NTA), and the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE) in collaboration with the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government (EKDD) on "Strengthening the governance system of local authorities" was successfully completed.
More than 400 elected officials and executives of local government and public administration, had the opportunity to be informed about the mechanisms and tools to strengthen transparency and internal audit procedures in order to ensure the effective operation and good governance of Local Authorities.
Greetings were given by:
The Minister of Interior, Mr. Makis Voridis, who described the strategic choice of the Ministry of Interior and the entire Government to tackle corruption and praised the crucial role of the Internal Audit System in this effort. He even announced the strengthening of this effort with the draft law under preparation for the National Strategic Plan for Fighting Corruption and the National Integrity Plan. Furthermore, he noted that the present Government has succeeded in significantly improving the position of our country in the Corruption Perception Index by implementing a comprehensive plan and stressed the need for Local Government Organizations to develop their own Internal Audit System, tailored to their own requirements.
In this context, he highlighted and encouraged the pilot effort undertaken in cooperation with the Municipality of Platanias for the implementation of an inter-municipal Internal Audit System in Crete. Finally, Mr. Voridis thanked all the representatives of Local Government as well as the National Transparency Authority, the Union of Greek Regions, the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece, the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government, the Hellenic Society for Local Development and Local Government for their assistance in the development of Internal Audit procedures in local authorities in order to enhance accountability, in order to make the operation and good governance of Local Government more effective.
The Deputy Minister of Interior, Mr. Stelios Petsas referred to the institutional interventions undertaken by the Ministry of Interior, characterizing the law on "Internal Audit" recently passed by the Greek Parliament as a key and necessary element in order for the central state and local government to offer high-quality services to citizens. The Deputy Minister of Interior made special mention of the ambitious work of the Hellenic Society for Local Development and Self-Government (EETAA) on the recording of the procedures followed by the Municipalities and Regions of the country in order to offer citizens everything they need.
To date, as Mr. Petsas pointed out, more than 684 procedures have been recorded for the Municipalities and about 700 for the Regions. This is the first serious step in terms of mapping the existing procedures used in local government, which - through a broad redesign - will allow the simplification of the services offered to citizens, while contributing to the reduction of corruption and the overlapping of responsibilities observed over the years and, therefore, to greater autonomy at each level of government. The Deputy Minister of Interior underlined that the proposal to simplify the existing procedures and reduce them - by about half - is a very important pillar in the discussion of "Multilevel Governance", which has already been launched, either for the transfer of competencies from the state to the local government or from the decentralized administration to the local government or even to other ministries.
"I am convinced that with the implementation of all this, in 2023, the strengthening of the role of the state and local government will now be visible to citizens," he said. Finally, he referred to the interventions of the Ministry of Interior to strengthen local government with qualified personnel, as well as with the necessary resources. In particular, as regards the latter, he stressed the importance of the available development financial instruments for the first and second-degree local authorities, as well as the targeted actions for the reform of the Central Autonomous Resources, in order - as he said - to lead, in the next period, to the gradual reversal of the shrinkage course of recent years.
The Governor of the National Transparency Authority, Mr. Angelos Binis, referring to the National Anti-Corruption Plan, noted that: "for the first time in Greece, the National Anti-Corruption Strategy was discussed in detail and adopted at the highest possible political level".
In this plan, Mr. Binis continued "the strengthening of integrity mechanisms in local government bodies continues to be a priority in order to build on the progress made so far". He referred to the Internal Audit system saying that "we have been trying for several years to strengthen the internal audit system, part of which are the internal audit units and the risk management function. This time we will succeed this time because all the relevant bodies have joined forces".
The Governor of the NTA concluded by stressing that "we listen to the anxieties of local government officials and elected officials, and we stand by them with practical tools like the ones we are presenting today and targeted training programs to respond to citizens' expectations for better services and transparency in all local government actions".
The President of the Association of Greek Regions (ENPE), Mr. Apostolos Tzitzikostas, referring to the Regions and Municipalities, said "we are the most reliable and closest level of government to the citizens and we have to exercise our administration according to specific rules, which ensure even more transparency and efficiency of our work. After all, in two successive crises, the ten-year economic crisis and the global health crisis, the thirteen Regions of the country have proven that we are agents of stability and efficiency".
The President of Central Union of Municipalities of Greece (KEDE), Mr. Dimitris Papastergiou during his address referred to the new system of governance of local authorities, borrowing "terms of information technology", as he said. "It is important, he said, to start talking about smart cities, applications and networks, but if we don't put content or change content in the systems we have, nothing will change. And content in this case is the mindset, it's the skills, it's exactly what we need to start with: That is, to completely change the character of self-government" But the "loopholes" in the laws and the problems they create, he said, again IT can teach us how to solve them the magic word "processes". "When we write code, he continued, if we have a piece of code that repeats itself we don't sit down to rewrite it. We create a procedure and reuse it every time we want to do the same thing. We have to do the same thing with the operation of our services, there is no reason to discover similar processes. It's that and we move on."
Referring to the Code of Conduct for Elected Bodies of Local Government presented today, Mr. Papastergiou stressed the excellent cooperation of the KEDE with the National Transparency Authority, which, he said, "is coming to put procedures in place to protect us and all well-meaning elected officials and municipal employees. At the same time, he praised the significant contribution of the Hellenic Society for Local Development and Self-Government (EETAA) in recording, codification and simplification of procedures applicable to the operation of municipalities.
The President of the Regional Union of Municipalities of Attica (PEDA), Mr. George Markopoulos noted that "we realize that governance at all levels must renounce formalism which leads to endless bureaucracy for both citizens and the officials themselves. As Mr. Markopoulos said, "There should be mutual trust between the human resources of the public sector and the administration and together with a targeted framework of action, they should proceed with intersectional counties that will consolidate the public institution. Any other practice has been proven to have brought the country to dead ends and we must leave the past behind if we want Public Management to work in our country".
The President of the National Centre for Public Administration & Local Government (EKDD), Ms. Paraskevi Dramalioti, in her welcome address, referred to the excellent teamwork that is taking place under the direction of the Minister of Interior, Mr. M. Voridis, between the NTA, KEDE, EETAA and EKDD for the implementation of the flagship legislation introduced by the Ministry of Interior. He stressed that the EKDD is the educational arm for the implementation of public policies, which have been designed and legislated at the government level, such as, among others, Law 4622, which provides for the operation of the Executive Branch.
She stressed the importance of the effort being made in the field of Internal Audit with the implementation by the EKDD - in cooperation with the Ministry of Interior and the NTA - of special training programs for the certification of Internal Auditors, a "pilot innovation" using new digital tools, as Ms. Dramalioti said.
The President of EKDD added that, alongside the certification of 100 Internal Auditors, the effort continues with the implementation of innovative programs for the certification of Integrity Advisors. Especially with regard to the certification of the overall training courses provided by EKDD, Ms. Dramalioti referred to the strengthening of a new mindset for the future, based on the demanding evaluation process of the employees who attend them and wish to be certified for them. In conclusion, she pledged for the immediate implementation by the EKDD of new government initiatives, such as the training of officials who will staff the executive branch.
The discussion was moderated by Mr. Christos Kourtis, Head of the Directorate of Integrity Policies and Standards of National Transparency Authority.