On April 15, Homo Digitalis submitted an electronic letter to the Minister of Interior, Ms Kerameos, regarding the Ministry’s project entitled “Development and operation of a tool for strategic planning of public sector staffing in terms of artificial intelligence”.

Our letter was communicated to the President of the Personal Data Protection Authority, Mr. Menoudakos, and to the Data Protection Officer of the Ministry of Interior, Mr. Theocharis.

More specifically, this project relates to the development and operation of a tool for the strategic planning of human resources in the public sector in terms of artificial intelligence and concerns the following axes:

– Creation of an integrated framework for strategic staffing planning (optimal allocation of existing and new staff) in the public sector (including technical specifications for the implementation and revision of existing frameworks)

– Pilot implementation in 9 Public Sector Entities and more specifically in MOD SA, AADE, OAED, Athens General Hospital “G. Municipality of Thessaloniki, Region of Attica, Ministry of Education and Religious Affairs, Ministry of Environment and Energy and Ministry of Culture and Sports,

– Design of training programmes for (a) users and (b) upgrading the skills of civil servants, and

– Development of the knowledge repository of civil servants.

According to relevant information posted on the website of the Ministry of Interior and articles in various media, the Ministry of Interior is the project manager and has already contracted with Deloitte for its preparation. In fact, according to the timetable, the work has made significant progress.

In its letter, Homo Digitalis requests information from the Minister on a number of questions regarding both the legal framework for the protection of personal data (Law 4624/2019 – GDPR), and the legal framework for the use of artificial intelligence systems by the public sector (Law 4961/2022), as the pilot implementation of the project is expected to take place immediately in the 9 institutions mentioned above.

Specifically, we put the following questions to the Minister in our letter:

-Has the Ministry of Interior carried out a data protection impact assessment before the project was announced, in accordance with the principles of data protection “already by design” and “by default”?
-Has a relevant Data Protection Impact Assessment been carried out specifically in relation to the pilot implementation of the platform in the 9 public bodies?
-If the relevant Assessments have been prepared, has the Ministry considered it necessary to consult the Data Protection Authority in this respect?

-Does the Ministry consider the 9 public bodies as joint controllers and if so, has the Ministry proceeded with the relevant obligations as set out in Article 26 GDPR?
-Can the Ministry inform us of the relevant categories of personal data, the purposes of the processing for which such data are intended, and the legal basis for the processing you intend to use?
-Can the Ministry point us to the exact website where the Ministry of Interior’s contract with Deloitte is posted so that we can study the relevant provisions contained therein, especially with regard to the processing of personal data?
-Finally, has the Ministry of Interior proceeded to comply with the obligations arising from the provisions of Law 4961/2022, and in particular has an algorithmic impact assessment been carried out (Article 5), has it taken the necessary transparency measures (Article 6), has the project contractor fulfilled their obligations in this respect (Article 7), and has the Ministry kept a register (Article 8) in view of the forthcoming pilot use of the system?