The hardship faced by citizens struggling to navigate state services is not limited to well-known cases of unanswered phone calls and the inability/unwillingness of public servants to assist those who cannot operate a computer.
There are cases of single parents being denied benefits because a state official decided so. An indicative case is that of a mother of two children, whose personal story was brought to light by the Commissioner for Administration and Human Rights, Maria Stylianou Lottides, in yesterday’s session of the parliamentary Committee on Institutions.
Lottides spoke about a single mother of two minors, who was subjected to unprecedented hardship by officials of the Ministry of Social Welfare, asking her to provide certificates from Greece in order to be granted an allowance for her children.
As she explained, after the mother struggled to obtain the necessary papers through the Greek embassy, her application was ultimately rejected. The irony is that the ministry was asking for certification for the children’s father, even though paternity was recognised, and the father’s name was indeed listed on the children’s official documents.
Before mentioning the aforementioned case, the Commissioner said she understands that there is a budget and procedures need to be followed, but added: “We cannot cut off or invent ways to avoid paying allowances to single-parent families.”
Speaking about the mother’s case, she said: “They were asking her for details from Greece, she went to the embassy, secured them, and still her application was not approved… They essentially questioned the father, who has recognised both his children.”
“His name is listed on their ID cards. However, for some bureaucratic reasons, their request was rejected… A father recognises both his children. One child was born in Cyprus and is okay. For the child born in Greece, they want a divorce certificate. But they were never married. They lived together. They were told ‘get documents from Greece.’ Greece says ‘but you’ve lived in Cyprus for six years.’ They finally get the paper and still their request is not accepted.”
At another point, she mentioned that guidelines should be given to some officials on how to examine certain requests. “They are asking for documents illegally,” the Commissioner commented.
The subject of the two-hour discussion in yesterday’s session of the Parliamentary Committee on Institutions was the recommendations and observations of the Commissioner for Administration and Human Rights regarding the problematic service provided to citizens by state agencies.
Present were the Ministers of Interior, Labour, and Transport, Konstantinos Ioannou, Yiannis Panagiotou, and Alexis Vafeades, respectively.
Among the invitees were the General Directors of the Land Registry and the Ministry of Social Welfare, Neoklis Neokleous and Yiannis Nicolaides, respectively. Most complaints from citizens have been expressed against this particular service and the aforementioned ministry, a fact hat was not disputed.
The discussion revolved around solutions for accessing state services in the post-pandemic era, especially for the digitally illiterate.
The ministers and other officials referred to efforts made aiming at compliance following the Commissioner’s recommendations, showing – at least with their statements – willingness to cooperate to improve the situation.
Previously, the magnitude of the problem was highlighted through MPs’ reports. Characteristic were the remarks made by MP Alexandra Attalides, who spoke of complexly designed websites of state services causing difficulties for people. Similarly, MP Zacharias Koulias pointed out that only a driver’s license can be renewed without problems, also referring to dysfunctional websites.
The Secretary of the Ministerial Council, Pinelopi Papavasileiou, sent the message that the government does not ignore the situation. She said that the Commissioner’s reports are being discussed in the Ministerial Council.
She even mentioned that the report for the first half of 2023 was discussed last week, identifying issues that need improvement. “There is an internal monitoring and coordination mechanism for the Commissioner’s recommendations,” she assured.
Regarding the digitalization of public service and citizen service, she said that the issue frequently concerns the Ministerial Council.
She spoke about a special presentation made to government officials by the Deputy Minister of Research, Innovation, and Digital Policy for the upgrade of websites and the implementation of the “digital citizen” with specific timelines.
