AL committee suggests cancelation of 10 civil servants’ positions

The Second Standing Committee of the Legislative Assembly (AL) proposes cancelling a total of ten civil servants’ positions.
This includes six “ordinary career” and four “special career” positions, such as technicians who serve as clerical assistants for photographic design, mail clerks, public relations officials and several other types of work which are deemed to be involved in specific tasks.
Yesterday, the committee carried out the first detailed reading on the recently generally passed civil servants career regime law No. 14/2009.
“The committee wants to ask the government about the necessity of adding so many definitions to the special career, including the definition of the requirement for capability,” Chan Chak Mo, chairman of the committee reported to the media after the meeting.
In total, five positions involved, are commonly known as the “195 careers” because the relevant salary equates to 195 points on the workers’ remuneration index.
However, considering that these jobs are no longer unique, the amendment proposed removing these occupations from the “195 career” framework.
Qualifying individuals with a secondary education degree, if they meet other conditions, can apply to join other civil service structures within eight years. Once these individuals pass the exam, they can join the “260 career” path.
“The government hopes to merge the position of technician and the position of senior technician. In the long term, if these two positions are merged, should the relevant individuals take the exams in accordance with this law?” Chan questioned, adding “Currently, technicians are required to have an associate degree, while a bachelor’s degree is required for senior technicians.”
The law proposes granting eligible personnel eight years to get a secondary school degree. The lawmakers want to know how the government calculated and decided to set the standard at eight years.
Aside from the above-mentioned matters, the members of the committee also raised questions about the high costs of each civil service exam held by the government.
“Right now, it does not cost much for individuals to apply to participate in a civil servant exam. Many people, after applying for it, don’t show up at the exam. We want to know how the government will handle such situations,” said Chan. He asked “could there be any consequences for not showing up at the exam? Such as charging for a registration fee, taking a deposit or banning them from taking another exam within a certain period.”
According to Chan, in some cases, the local government rents a school hall with a capacity for approximately 200 people, but sometimes only a handful of people show up to take the exam.
“The administrative costs are too high,” said Chan.

Committee proposes to pay exam invigilators equally
The committee has proposed to pay every exam invigilator the same amount of money for the effort and time contributed to watching a public exam.
Under the government’s current practice, the invigilators of civil service exams, who are themselves civil servants, are paid at different rates.
Invigilators with a higher renumeration point in their general salary are paid more than those with a lower renumeration point. The payment is calculated on an hourly basis.
“Now, in order to show fairness and transparency, every invigilator will be paid with an amount equivalent to 4.5% of 100 points of the civil servant renumeration index [per hour],” Chan explained. The proposal will only come into practice once the law comes into effect.
Each point is equivalent to 91 patacas.