On Wednesday, the Republic of Cyprus and the Hellenic Republic signed a Memorandum of Cooperation on issues related to the training of civil servants, under which, among other things, the certification of Cyprus' internal auditors will proceed.
The Memorandum was signed between the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government of Greece and the Cyprus Academy of Public Administration at the Ministry of Finance, in the presence of Finance Minister Konstantinos Petridis and Interior Minister of Greece Makis Voridis, who is visiting Cyprus.
In his statements after the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding, Petridis said that this "concerns a wide field of cooperation between the two countries."
"The Greek Government is a reformist Government, which is proceeding with the reform of both the Local Government and the Public Service at a rapid pace," he said, adding that "Cyprus is a country, which is also proceeding with such reforms."
"The Greek Government is a reformist Government, which is proceeding with such reforms.
So, he said, "we consider the exchange of expertise and ideas between the two countries very important."
The Finance Minister noted that "we are also moving on to more concrete steps." Greece, he said, "has certified the internal auditors of the Public Service. We want to learn from Greece why we also want to move to this very important measure of certifying internal auditors after a rigorous assessment as is done in other countries." "We have strengthened the internal audit system in Cyprus but we want to take more steps," he said.
At the same time, Petrides said that Voridis "in the context of a European initiative raised the idea of an exchange of personnel between the two countries, civil servants for training purposes." "It is something we will work on together so that by June we can move towards a tangible cooperation," he said.
"We discussed other issues as well. Expertise is important for both countries and we will continue this cooperation that we started to build," he concluded.
For his part, Voridis said that "public administration is one of the big stakes in any policy as it has to cope with bigger and bigger challenges." One of the biggest challenges facing public administrations across Europe is essentially the digital revolution, the digital reform, he added.
"Civil servants also need to be trained, educated, adapted, to meet the demands of this digital revolution, this digital reform that is happening all over the world," he pointed out.
Voridis continued by saying that "our two institutions, the National Centre for Public Administration and Local Government of Greece and the Cypriot Academy which are in charge of, precisely, the training of civil servants, I am very happy that they will continue and deepen their cooperation."
"They have a history of cooperation but now I think that this will deepen further," he said.
He also expressed his pleasure "that today we have agreed and we can announce that a bilateral cooperation between the Hellenic Republic and the Republic of Cyprus is starting.S. Directorate General for Structural Reform Support] but also in the Council of Ministers, so that we can have the possibility of an exchange programme for civil servants". An, he explained, "Erasmus of civil servants, so that through this exchange middle and senior managers of the two public administrations can gain different administrative experiences, see good practices and in this way be able to become more administratively integrated and provide better administrative services to citizens".
"This is, in my opinion, an important step," he said.
And of course the second one, the Greek Interior Minister said, "which you mentioned, the certification of internal auditors. Internal audit is a very important issue for the integrity of public administration and for dealing with corruption at the preventive stage, not just at the repressive stage."
The third, he added, "is the certification of digital skills, which is essentially training programmes that will enable civil servants to certify their digital skills."
He expressed his pleasure at the meeting and the cooperation "between the two training structures", adding that he believes that "it will be a cooperation that will be welcomed at the European Commission level."
Source: CNA
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