The last job cuts are a carrot of sorts after years of sticks from the troika. Once they are completed, the government can hire 15,000 new employees, provided they have diplomas, are computer-savvy and go through merit-based reviews — procedures unfamiliar to many people now on the Greek state’s payroll.

Clearing the slate is not easy. Most government jobs are protected by the Greek Constitution, and there are no job descriptions for most government positions, making it hard to evaluate performance and build cases for dismissal. A government plan to impose evaluations a few years ago flopped after employees refused to participate.

“Greece is one of the most bureaucratic countries in Europe,” said Mr. Manitakis, whose own office was flanked by five employees who stood up each time he came in and out. “The majority of government hirings in the past were made through clientelism or illegally.”

Mr. Manitakas says that as he looked for bloat, he was regaled with examples. In the most eye-popping cases, Mr. Manitakis said, government officials appointed relatives or friends to manage departments with no employees, giving them posts that came with bonuses, long holidays and even a car and driver. Today, the average Greek ministry has about 440 departments or administrative units, 20 percent of which have no staff other than the department head.

That leaves Mr. Manitakis searching for what would seem to be low-hanging fruit. But other targets came with their own set of problems. For instance, he hoped to swiftly fire around 1,500 civil servants facing disciplinary action, including a man who skipped work for more than 100 days and a worker accused of demanding bribes.

Yet only a handful have gone before the tribunal that decides such cases.

And then there is a phalanx of quasi-government agencies, many of which seem to have outlived their purpose. One of those, Electromechanica Kymi Ltd., was set up 25 years ago to make uniforms, accessories and bulletproof vests for the military. But since 2002, the 50 workers at its building in a village two hours west of Athens have produced only a tiny fraction of what they used to after government officials started outsourcing the work to other companies.

“I don’t even know what some of them do,” said Greece’s inspector general, Leandros Rakintzis, who is in charge of identifying corruption and cronyism in government. “What I do know is that many people are going to work and being paid for doing nothing.”