„Matrix” – a new recruitment procedure for officials

A new centralized procedure of officials’ recruitment, in force since the 1^st of June, will supposedly provide a transparent system of hiring employees for state posts.

In Lithuanian reality, it can however become another mechanism of getting a job for money or because of the connections that fosters corruption. The offices and the state and local institutions won’t be able to choose their employees amongst the candidates by themselves anymore. They will have to recruit an employee from the candidates who will go through the centralized recruitment procedure of the Civil Service Department (DSP – Departament Służby Państwowej).

The director of the recruitment department of CSD, Rasa Tumene says that the offices and the institutions will still be able to make the final decision about the employment, however she admits that they will only be able to choose from the cadidates that pass the verification procedure in the Department.

„They will be the best of our candidates”, Tumene assures us.

„I don’t know how such a statement can be supported because the new procedure is much worse than the previous one”, the mayor of Salcininkai district municipality Zdzisław Palewicz told us in turn. According to him, the local recruitment committees were able to choose candidates more accurately in the past.

„Today we don’t even know from whom we can choose from”, the mayor points out. He admits that the new centralized rectuitment system is a system of „the cat in the bag”. He also observes that the interviews can be evaluated by the central committee in a subjective way towards respective candidates.

„What is more, we have already some bad experiences with centralized recruitment for managerial posts of educational establishments.” Zdzisław Palewicz says. He is sorry that the new system went into effect without due consultations.

According to the authors of the new regulation, the weak candidate for an official should come off already during the first stage. And it is hard not to believe that because the recruitment sieve is so thick that the weak candidate for an official should come off already during the application process.

In order to qualify for the next stage, the candidate must not only submit their resume, but also a declaration of ‘an unblemished reputation’. Therefore those who as a child, for example, stole apples from the garden of a neighbour or cheated on a math quiz at school, are actually not suitable to work as an official and should come off right from the start. To get to the next stage, the ‘unblemished’ candidates will have to take the test verifying their ability to think. So they will have to not only make calculations based on statistical tables, but also take a test of verbal and geometric analogies, sequence of numbers and letters, transcoding, and syllogisms and so-called ‘matrix’ which according to the authors of the tests, is arranging in a logical sequence, for example, geometric shapes with dots, stripes and dashes.

The candidates who correctly solve over 50% of these tasks will qualify for the next test evaluating their general competences. The test verifies the candidate’s knowledge of basic bills of law including the Constitution. It is necessary to have also over 50% of correct answers to qualify for the next stage. The candidates applying for managerial positions will have to also undergo an interview. And we are half way through the process.

The next stage of the recruitment process will take place in the office or the institution where the candidate will face a special verification committee. Rase Tumene notes however that the Department specialists will also be able to participate in the work of that committee. Candidates will have to undergo another interview about a particular position and do a practical task. The committee will decide on the basis of this verification whether to appoint of reject the candidate.

The candidate will have to pass a test in one of the several licensed language centers and get a cirtificate confirming his or her knowledge of one of the three foreign langauges – English, German or French.

The director of  the recruitment department of CSD is confident that the new hiring procedure will be beneficial not only for the hiring institution but also for the candidates themselves.

„The candidates who will pass the recruitment tests but won’t get hired, will not have to retake the test for three years”, Tumene explained.

When asked whether the new recruitment procedure of hiring officials were tested for anti-corruption, the official explained that according to the current legislation, the anit-corruption analysis is made by he institution that prepares the regulation. Tumene assured that the Departmend has made such analysis.

However, the anti-corruption agency – Service for Special Affairs, which may carry out an analysis of the anti-corruption on its own initiative or at the request of the higher civil services, was not inerested in the new recruitment procedure. What is more, as we were able to establish, the anit-corruption agency wouldn’t be able to carry out such an analysis even if they wanted to, because the legal regulation of such activities expired on the 1^st of January of this year and to this day no one took care to prepare and approve the new regulation. It will probably be only done in a month.

Source: http://kurierwilenski.lt/2013/06/06/matrix-nowy-tryb-rekrutacji-urzednikow/

Tłumaczenie by Justyna Kaczmarek w ramach praktyk w Europejskiej Fundacji Praw Człowieka, www.efhr.eu. Translated by Justyna Kaczmarek within the framework of a traineeship programme of the European Foundation of Human Rights, www.efhr.eu.