Parliament member Zacharias Koulias has told the House Interior Committee that civil service posts were filled without written exams, with 160 officers eventually hired, describing it as a scandal of enormous proportions. He said the District Administrations, where the new staff were meant to serve, were now struggling to serve the public.
Koulias said the posts had been advertised and filled by the Administration Department, including 20 on the A13 salary scale and seven on the A15 scale. Only a small number of posts had originally been planned, he said. “They hired their friends,” he added.
He alleged that those hired had been placed in various posts where they were comfortable, and did not want to move to the District Administrations. The District Administrations had always been a lifeline for the public, he said, and the new arrangements were causing huge problems in serving people.
The committee heard that experienced staff had been moved to other departments without being replaced. Where replacements had been made, the staff sent to the district officers lacked experience, which takes two to three years to acquire.
Committee chairman Aristos Damianou said he had discussed the matter with the interior minister, who had taken some steps but appeared to have come up against a wall of resistance.
Parliament member Christos Christofides said the functioning of Nicosia’s communities had seized up. If the situation continued, he said, services to the public would grind to a halt.
DISY parliament member Dimitris Dimitriou said parliament had been ignored and that action had been taken without its involvement, despite assurances that the administration would come back to discuss the matter.
