One of the government’s achievements is that it managed to devalue public organizations and turn them problematic, after these organizations managed to finally operate normally and without constantly generating deficits. By appointing managements everywhere without merit aside from one’s years in the party, they brought important public enterprises to the brink.
The transportation system in Athens is one such example in recent years, which before the ascent of SYRIZA to power managed to put everything in order and become profitable without any layoffs or restricting services. These days STASY, the company that manages the metro, tram and electric railway, is constantly generating damages. This year’s the damages are estimated to be 32.5 million euros and in 2017 they are expected to increase to 61 million euros, no thanks to the management…
A similar, if not worse, situation is going on with OASA, which manages the buses. Aside from the damages, more than half of the buses are out of order, the services have been severely restricted, there are no spare parts for repairs, since the debts towards suppliers exceed 40 million euros. It has been estimated that over 80 million euros will be necessary to update the fleet so that services may be reinstated.
The decline in revenue from the non-payment of tickets is significant, since there are no conductors and those who do their job are threatened. The ticket validation machines are destroyed before they even begin to operate and nobody cares…
A government that claims to support the public interest is in practice undermining the operation of public transportation, the predominant means of transport used by working classes to go to work.
The people will both be called to pay for the increasing deficits and continue to suffer from the problematic operation of these services. The Minister of Transport may shed a tear when he signs the bailout agreements, but he obviously has better things to do than protect the public interest…
TO VIMA
