The Health Ministry last year chose to appoint four medical consultants despite the fact they did not satisfy eligibility requirements and the ministry’s selection board then disclaimed responsibility when challenged.
In the most flagrant case, a person appointed as a medical consultant had not even obtained a certificate of specialist training – a key requirement for the vacancy.
Two other individuals who had placed first in selection processes for consultancy posts were found by the Public Service Commission to have been working as Resident Specialists despite not being registered as specialists according to law.
The ministry’s recruitment bungle was the highlight of the Public Service Commission’s 2011 annual report that has just been published.
The PSC is an independent body charged with advising the government on the recruitment, removal and disciplining of public sector workers. When asked to explain their decision to appoint the under-qualified people to consultancy posts, the ministry’s selection board “reacted by withdrawing all of their signatures from the respective reports, that is to say disclaiming responsibility for the result which they themselves had drawn up,” the PSC said.
As a result, the PSC was forced to annul the selection process for three of the applicants, revoke the appointment of the fourth and direct the ministry to appoint a fresh selection board.
Selection boards are appointed by the PSC on the recommendation of the respective ministry. They are charged with establishing eligibility of candidates, interviewing them and selecting them for public sector posts.
A Health Ministry spokesman refused to divulge the names of the selection board members who had withdrawn their signatures – something the spokesman admitted was “unprecedented” – citing data protection concerns.
They, however, confirmed that the ministry was currently in the process of establishing a new selection board. The PSC’s findings, the spokesman said, led to discussions with the Medical Association of Malta to amend medical consultancy recruitment procedures.
From now on, such vacancies will make it clear that applicants must be registered as specialists to qualify for such posts, with their two-year work experience as specialists only starting from their date of registration.
The four objections to public sector selection processes were among the 21 such cases which the PSC upheld in 2011, from a total of 121.
But botched recruitment procedures were not the only target of the PSC’s 82-page report, with several other highlights to choose from.
They include a police officer dismissed after being convicted of stealing fuel, five workers in the Rural Affairs Ministry employed as butchers but doing other work below their salary scale, and a public sector lawyer who defended her relative in a disciplinary hearing against her own employer.