Greek bureaucracy - an unstoppable force?

The Greek economy is struggling to emerge from a decade-long crisis that has left the country financially destitute, its private sector in tatters, especially after the previous government proved ideologically unable to support most private endeavour. A new government, supposedly eager to modernise and develop things to enable the private sector to survive, even thrive, and hence contribute properly to the rebuilding of the Greek economy, is making all sorts of encouraging noises.

And, let's be fair, certain things have changed for the better even in the midst of the crisis: private companies, for example, are no longer required to publish annual accounts in several newspapers, national, financial and local, thus wasting several thousand euros in a fool's errand, there to support the press but providing very little for the benefit of either the companies or anyone seeking to learn more about them.

A few years ago and in order to simplify things for everyone concerned the government of the day - in fact the previous centre-right New Democracy government, deep in the economic meltdown for which they were partly responsible - created a centralised authority for all Greek limited companies of all variants to be registered, submit annual accounts and all changes to their composition and status; they based this - where else - in central Athens, co-housing it with the Athens Chamber of Commerce and making it a one-stop service for most company information and certification.

All of which sounds great if it wasn't for the fact that, in typical Greek fashion, this new organisation  also endorses a significant amount of bureaucracy, most of it - to my eyes anyway - totally without benefit and entirely unnecessary. For example, I had to pay a ten euro fee in order to be issued with a certificate of sorts. At the till the cashier printed a receipt on his printer in two copies, then proceeded to stamp and sign them before handing them over to me to present at a counter ten metres away... why? Also, before getting any sort of document ordered, one needs to fill in the relevant paper application form (many different forms exist, of course, depending on what is needed), sometimes rather complex, which then is stamped and processed. It is rare for any certificate or copy to be available on the spot, with a week being the normal waiting period as far as I could see. And I could go on...

Don't get me wrong, it feels and is more efficient than a normal Greek office manned by civil servants, with the staff unfailingly polite and quite helpful. Yet this - supposedly modern - business friendly centre is run using the old bureaucratic systems, with lots of bits of paper that need to be stamped, signed and then shuffled around, creating useless actions and lost time. It seems that even when we come up with a bright idea that cuts costs and makes the system more efficient we have to burden it with unproductive, needless paperwork.

Successive governments have prattled on about needing foreign investment and how they are aiming to attract it. I can tell them for free that unnecessary, silly, costly bureaucracy is not the way, no, really!