Government blames civil service entrance examination 'chaos' on outsourcing company
Unions and political opposition call on for accountability after delays, cancellations, and violations of anonymity
The Catalan government responsibilized an outsourcing company for the "chaos" and the "bad management" seen on Saturday during the civil service entrance examination process. Unions condemned the situation after many cancelations, delays, and even violations of anonymity during the tests to get a job as a public servant.
Exam-takers and unions, such as CGT, considered the case of "bad management," similar to the IAC-CATAC workers union, which says the process was "disorganized" and full of "incompetence."
The social educator test even was suspended in Barcelona early afternoon on Saturday after many hours of uncertainty due to a problem with the exams.
During the evening, the public function and administration secretary, Alícia Correa, apologized to exam-takers and opened the possibility of repeating some exams. Authorities have already asked for an internal report to clarify what happened.
"We are awaiting a judicial report to inform us if there has been any violation of the principles of equality and merits and to analyze everything on a case-by-case basis," Correa said.
On Sunday midday, presidency minister Laura Vilagrà announced the plan to open a website for exam-takers to report any "logistic issues during the exams process."
"We want to exactly adjust which are the problems and in which groups, as some are very serious, and it would probably mean that the exam should have to be repeated," Vilagrà said.
Opposition calls for accountability
Meanwhile, the main opposition party, the Socialists, called for accountability and urged Vilagrà, to explain the "organizational chaos of the civil service entrance examination process seen this weekend."
For the party, the government's answers were "not enough," and cannot consider "professional" to blame the situation on the outsourcing company, the political group wrote in a statement.
Similarly, former junior coalition partner Junts per Catalunya will officially request Vilagrà to explain the situation in parliament.
Even though PSC and Junts asked for Vilagrà to speak, she confirmed her plan to appear in a parliamentary committee at her own will on Sunday afternoon to clarify the situation.
Overall 13,581 governmental workers were called on for the exams on Saturday for 1,825 job offers.