During the last four months of each year, written exams will be held to fill vacancies in the civil service, and two months before the exam date, candidates will be notified of the exam material and the exam date, as reported on Monday to the Parliamentary Committee on Finance during the review of the government’s bill on filling First Appointment positions in the civil service.
Positions will be announced during the first two months of each year (January–February), and applications from interested candidates will be submitted three weeks after a position is announced.
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As stated before the Committee by the Chairman of the Public Service Commission (EDY), Georgios Papageorgiou, stated that once the application period closes, candidates will be asked to rank their preferences (1st choice, 2nd choice, 3rd choice).
He added that the EDY and the Advisory Committees will then decide which exam to administer and when to hold it.
He also stated that two months before the exam, the EDY and the Advisory Committees must inform the candidates of the exact date of the exam and the exam material.
He also noted that a decree to be issued by the Council of Ministers will determine the positions for which the Advisory Committees will be responsible for administering examinations.
He added that the role of the Advisory Committees is to administer the written exam and send the exam results to the EDY.
Mr. Papageorgiou also stated that “it is impossible to meet the timelines” as outlined in the bill and proposed that the new law be implemented in 2028. The Committee’s Vice Chair, Chrysis Pantelidis, noted that this matter would be considered at the Committee’s next meeting.
At this point, AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtides said that the Ministry of Finance should also inform the Committee at the next session about what will happen with the vacant positions this year.
The President of the EDY also proposed to the Finance Committee that the term “to be appointed” be replaced with the term “to be offered an appointment,” explaining that “to be appointed” implies that the candidate has accepted the position, whereas if an appointment is offered and the candidate does not accept it, the position remains unfilled.
Maria Kleanthous-Kalli, a Public Administration and Personnel Officer in the Department of Public Administration and Personnel (DPAP) of the Ministry of Finance, recommended that the bill include a provision stating that written exams are held on a date and at a location determined by the EDY or by the relevant Advisory Committee and announcedvia a notice in the Official Gazette of the Republic, to be published at least two months prior to the date of the exams.
In his remarks, Mr. Pasiourtidis said that it must be determined who will decide whether special examinations will be held, noting that there was a majority on the Committee in favor of the Cabinet not making that decision.
DISY MP Savia Orfanidou, said that DISY wants the list of vacant positions to be submitted to the House of Representatives, contrary to the provision in the bill stating that it should not be submitted to the House.
“Our disagreement stems from the fact that we do not want to be relieved of our duty to review them,” she said, adding, “We will not relinquish the House’s right to the list.”
Mr. Pasiourtidis said that the list will be submitted to Parliament today and approved, while if a Ministerial Decree is issued tomorrow regarding specialized exams for certain positions “I have no authority to do anything.”
Ms. Kleanthous-Kalli said that this is “a purely administrative, technocratic process,” adding that “it is not the goal to exempt positions from the general written exams.”
Mr. Pantelidis said that this issue would be examined at a future meeting of the Committee, while Ms. Orfanidou said that DISY would introduce a bill regarding the special exams to establish a timeline for them.
Regarding the agencies authorized to administer the exams, the President of the EDY said that the appointing authority delegates, among other things, the administration of exams to the examination service, the productivity center, or a private university.
The Chairman and Member of Parliament for the “Alma” movement, Odysseas Michaelides, pointed out that for one position, a candidate would take an exam administered by EDY, while for another position, they would take exams administered by the Advisory Committees, and he proposed that EDY be granted the authority by law to administer the general exam first for all candidates, and for those who fail to be eliminated from the specialized exam.
A representative of the Department of Public Administration expressed the view that this would act as a “filter” and emphasized the possibility that there might be greater interest if certain positions were advertised separately. He noted that some positions attract very little interest and may be excluded from the general exams.
DISY MP Dimitris Dimitriou said that one of the biggest concerns is keeping citizens informed in a timely manner, which is why we need more information than is currently available.
For this reason, we must ensure a “cap” on the number of positions to be filled through special exams, he added.
PASYDY spokesperson Stalo Dimitriou referred to a “huge problem” in filling vacant positions, citing as an example that in 2025, 36 positions for supervisors at the Ministry of Education were announced, government exams were held, and of those who passed the exams, 11 met the qualifications outlined in the job description, yet only 3 accepted the position.
He stated that the issue is not one of job descriptions, but rather “the type of government exams we administer today,” while noting that an attitude test would not resolve the issue.
Regarding the problem of filling positions, the EDY President said that “the exam isn’t the problem,” but rather the job’s content, the job description, the difficulty of the duties, and the compensation relative to the duties performed.
“If we want to resolve these issues, we need to revisit the job descriptions for these positions,” he concluded.
Source: CNA
