Newsroom
According to the latest report from the Public Service Commission, civil servants in Cyprus are basically superheroes… at least when it comes to scoring themselves.
Chairman Giorgos Papageorgiou presented the 2024 annual report Tuesday, painting a “pessimistic” picture of the public service evaluation system, mainly because almost everyone scored near-perfect marks. The average score across ministries and departments was 9.01 out of 10, up from 8.74 in 2023. Some offices, like the Famagusta District Administration, hit a perfect 10, while the Ministry of Health and the Judicial Service weren’t far behind at 9.84 and 9.55, respectively.
Papageorgiou noted that most ministries are still bending, or outright ignoring, the rules of the new evaluation system. Only a handful, including the Deputy Ministry of Shipping and the Press and Information Office, are actually following the guidelines. The rest? Apparently, everyone’s just excellent.
Disciplinary action seems almost mythical: in the past five years, just two dismissals and three demotions were recorded, along with 10 financial reprimands.
Education-wise, the public service is impressively overqualified. Nearly 70% hold university degrees, 39% a postgraduate degree, and many employees in positions that technically don’t require a university diploma still have one. Women make up 64% of public servants, while the majority of workers, 67%, are aged 35 to 54. Only 7% are under 34, proving that climbing the ranks apparently requires some years of perfecting your “superior evaluation” skills.
Papageorgiou called for better compliance with the evaluation system, but judging by the scores, civil servants are already clearly winning… even if the system itself isn’t.
