Gov’t establishes rules for bureau heads’ selection, career progression of officials

The government has established supplementary provisions for selecting bureau heads and mandatory training for the promotion of division chiefs.

The new rules are part of an administrative regulation, which the Executive Council (ExCo) has finished discussing and approved for publication.

Yesterday morning, at the government headquarters, the Secretary for Administration and Justice and ExCo spokesperson André Cheong presented the new regulation to the media. He noted that the new rules aim to align with the recently approved statute of government leadership personnel (Law 9/2025), complementing and defining specific guidelines.

Cheong noted that the new regulation provides that, except for exceptional statutory circumstances, bureau directors and department heads should be selected from those holding the next lower level of official positions.

Meanwhile, division chiefs should be chosen from those who have completed the corresponding qualification training courses.

This new regime establishes that, with very few exceptions, all new directors will hold deputy director roles, following a clear hierarchical path.

Additionally, the government has established that the Public Administration and Civil Service Bureau (SAFP) will act as a third party to supervise and monitor these promotions, with all promotions requiring SAFP’s opinion.

According to the provisions, the SAFP will ensure that the person to be promoted meets the position requirements, especially those regarding civic ethics and professional abilities.

The same will happen every time these officials’ appointments need to be renewed, with SAFP required to reevaluate.

According to further explanation from SAFP director Leong Weng In, if there is a record of admonition during the term of office, the reappointment order must explain why the person is proposed to continue in such a role.

When asked about the matter, Leong explained that these new rules are to “better integrate with the new law” and “build a government team with a clearer career ladder.”

Regarding the training courses for division chiefs, according to Leong, over 30% of the officials have already undergone this kind of training, adding that civil servants will only need to undergo the training once to be part of the pool that will allow their future career progress.

She also said that SAFP will be in charge of integrating and analyzing all data related to officials and will issue suggestions about who should be promoted to lead the department or division, thus centralizing all civil servant promotions related to leadership roles.

The new administrative regulation will take effect on November 1 this year, simultaneously with the enforcement of Law 9/2025.