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Greek Agencies Won't Die, But Property Abandoned

Confiscated cars in a yard of the Public Property Management Organisation, in Athens. (REUTERS/John Kolesidis)

While Greece is trying to ramp up the pace of privatization to sell or lease state entities and properties to raise critical cash, an agency that auctioned off everything from old furniture from municipal buildings to cars confiscated from drug dealers has been closed down – but its employees kept, a Reuters report has found.
The Organisation for Public Property Management (ODDY) ran warehouses nationwide but was losing money, squeezed by competition and burdened with dozens of unnecessary workers, a common practice in Greece. But with international lenders pressuring Greece to cut costs and raise funds, ODDY was on a list to be shut in 2011 and has been phased out – but its workers remain, if only on paper.
A ministerial decree in November, 2011 announced ODDY no longer existed, and the European Union and International Monetary Fund, which are keeping Greece afloat on condition it slashes costs, duly noted in March that the required cuts had been legislated for. It appears to have been a sham as employees and government officials who spoke to Reuters have revealed that ODDY still exists in all but name, for as DDDY – no longer an Organisation, but now a Directorate – it has simply become an office of the Greek Finance Ministry. And while staffing has been cut, many costs have simply transferred from wages to pensions, and the shake-up has all but paralyzed its ability to run auctions to make money.
Employees who have remained have had their wages cut along with other public employees and the abandoned property that could bring Greece much-needed money sit in chained-off graveyards. “I feel disappointed. This is not what we dreamed of,” said George Chronopoulos, who retired last month aged 61 after 37 years working for ODDY as a valuer, mainly for cars, at the agency’s Athens warehouse, one of its four main sites. “I used to love my job,” said Chronopoulos, who was also a trade union organiser and served for a time on the agency’s management board. “But now I cannot find a reason to stay.”
The newly-named entity held only one car auction this year compared to one a month when it was still functioning and it’s no longer available on the Internet so people looking for cars and cheap sales can’t find it. The main yard in Athens is being guarded by clerks and dogs.
Details from the story of ODDY, which Reuters said it pieced together from current and former employees and official records, show the difficulty that new Prime Minister Antonis Samaras faces with his plan to save 2 billion euros by 2015 through scrapping agencies in the hope of persuading international lenders he can steer the budget towards balance.
WHAT AM I BID?
Dimitris Kouvaris, who has run the DDDY operation since March, defended his agency’s efforts to reform itself, acknowledging struggles with technical problems but insisting that it was too early to pass judgment on a long-term overhaul which he said would save the state money eventually. “Our aim is to reduce spending, achieve better control of expenses and upgrade services,” he told Reuters. “Of course, we have technical and operational problems which we are trying to overcome, and also labor-related issues, since the workforce has been significantly reduced.”
Founded as ODISY in 1946 to manage leftover wartime equipment, ODDY became widely known in the 1980s and 90s for auctioning off cars confiscated from criminals. Employees say politicians and civil servants were particularly frequent visitors to its warehouses, picking up bargains. As late as November last year, the agency handed over free to the army five vehicles including an Audi sedan, a government document shows.
By the turn of the century, however, the agency had gone into decline, suffering from competition from private firms bidding to recycle materials, former valuer Chronopoulos said. For 2009, published results show ODDY had accumulated losses of  17 million euros and had a net loss that year of 2.4 million euros, but under the Greek Constitution it is unlawful to fire public employees even if the agency they work for is losing money.
When it went on the shutdown list, many of the 120 workers, facing wage and pension cuts, retired early, hoping for more generous terms but successive governments have cut pensions three times and a fourth round is looming. Kouvaris said the agency isn’t dead yet, pointing to an auction held last month as a success, and said that online sales could restart this month and he was hoping for monthly revenues of up to 1 million euros with a luxury yacht and cargo vessels still on the agency’s books.
Athens University management professor Antonis Makrydimitris told Reuters that keeping the agency half-alive is typical of Greek mentality he said is defeating attempts to reform. “If you ask workers or managers in these entities if someone else could do their job, not only they would say ‘no’ but they would say they need more people… The problem is that none of these organizations want to die.”
 

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