More than 30 directors and heads of archaeology ephorates and museums across the country said the ruling Radical Left SYRIZA is hiring incompetent people for the sector who have no experience.

The appointments came through the Culture Ministry for making staff appointments on partisan grounds at the expense of merit, the people who run the museums and archaeology sites told Kathimerini.

In a letter sent last month to the Culture Ministry seen the paper, the signatories raised concerns about the patronage hirings that Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras he would stop even as he surrounds himself with Special Advisors at 2000-euro ($2246) a month salaries critics said were hired because they were close to him but unqualified to serve.

The new hiring system means the post of an archaeology department director could be given to someone with a degree in public administration and a postgraduate degree in cultural administration without even having been on an archaeology excavation site one day.