“It will be hard to win the competitions through amendments to the Law on Civil Service”, said Manvel Badalyan, the chairman of the Civil Service Council, referring to the information published in the press that the one who has won the civil service competition 32 times had not gotten any job at all, at the “Hayeli” (mirror) club. According to Manvel Badalyan, the number of winners and the model of assessment were limited. I.e. there can be no more than three winners. “We psychologically understand the man who has won the competition 32 times and was not assigned to an office. We have made it more objective now. There has been a case recently, there was a competition for the head of a department at the ministry of sports, when the ministry representatives were the members of the commission and they showed an explicitly subjective attitude toward a competitor. In the case of very easy exam, they gave very high grades and so to say granted the victory. However, the council appealed that decision and the decision regarding that citizen was revoked”, said M. Badalyan.
As for the civil servants of various ministries that demanded a raise, for which they were fired, Mr. Badalyan assured that they hadn’t applied to the civil service council, therefore they could not deal with that issue, “I have read various statements in the press – they have punished, fired. There is no such mechanism – they cannot fire anyone without the council’s consent. If a civil servant shows civil activity, initiative and is so afraid that he hands in his resignation on the demand of some functionary, I don’t want to follow him. We will try to defend those who apply to us.”
Mr. Badalyan thinks that an important reason for the civil servants’ resigning from the office is the low wage, “The salaries of all public officials in our country do not amount to the work they do.” In M. Badalyan’s opinion, the new social package that gives some support to the civil servants in the field of medical service, mortgage etc. is a step forward, “There are many sick people among the public servants, the state system and people involved in it must be cured through these serious social guarantees. Today many people think that public service is business. It seems to many that fulfilling public service, they are like businessmen or have to make that much money.”
Nelly BABAYAN
