A group of newly graduated young people, full of energy and demanding for their future, had today a morning coffee with Prime Minister Edi Rama in one of the coffee shops of the capital. These young people from Tirana, who have graduated in various fields, shared their aspirations with the Prime Minister. They are very clear about what they want, and they want the best for themselves based on merit and competition.
Together with the State Minister for Innovation and Public Administration, Milena Harito, they talked and exchanged their recruitment experiences in the public administration through on-line applications and competitions. Their experiences are different. Some didn’t succeed the first time, but being determined to be part of the public administration, and after improving on this journey, they succeeded. “I applied online but didn’t win for a few scores. Then I tried it again some months later. I competed and I won”, one young woman, who is employed in the Ministry of Finance, told about her experience.
They told that they have been sometimes distrustful, but the process is completely transparent and the opportunity to make a complaint and to try again has put an end to all doubts. One of them, part of the Foreign Ministry staff, also told his experience. “I succeeded in the second application. I was an intern before the application, and I had earned a contract. Then I applied to the Department of Diaspora. There was a problem with the papers, and this raised my doubts. I made a complaint, and everything was clarified, my doubts went away, and the process proceeded normally. I’ve been appointed in the Department of Diaspora.”
Some of these young people have passed since the first application. “I applied in the public administration, then I did a 3-month internship through the internship program. Then I had a one-year contract, which helped me with the requirement for the work experience. All vacancies announced by the DPA require the work experience. I applied, did the interview, and I was appointed.”
The Prime Minister told her that not winning since the first might give you the wrong impression. “You are a special case, as usually applicants don’t win in the first time. Generally, they don’t because the competition is tough. They think competition is rigged, and they don’t get what they deserve. I’ve met people who have competed even six and seven times. They’ve lost five, six times, and have kept going. Competition also is an experience, so that you know what steps to follow. The important thing is that we have now created a basis.”
Minister Harito explained that out of the 50.000 people who have applied in the system since 2014, 2.500 have already become part of the administration.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister noted that the public administration is now a consolidated mechanism with a guaranteed stability, and it cannot be changed according to the interests of politics. “2.500 people with this system is a very good basis because, despite applicants are young and don’t have a great experience, the law provides many guarantees, and this is very important. So, nobody can remove you from your jobs, just because they want so, and we’re for a very long term in the administration. Due to this kind of stability, the administration will be totally different in a span of 10 years. Of course, 10 years seem a lot, but the countries at which we look with admiration, have a 100-year old administration. Administration is the most difficult thing to build. You cannot build it like you do with the roads, but it’s something that takes a lot of time, it requires a lot of human resources that must be attentively selected and be qualified step by step, year after year.”
The Prime Minister also noted that recruitment reform in the public administration is giving its fruit to building a European civil service. “It is very important that these young people become part of the administration because of their merits, and not because of some friendships or party affiliations, in order to create a new standard of the public administration. The most positive part from a moral point of view for the administration, but also for those who enter the civil service, is that when they win because of their merit, it is a totally different thing in relation to work, to the institution, to the superiors, from when they are there as a result of an intervention that is not guaranteed tomorrow, of a power that is not guaranteed tomorrow, or of a support that is not guaranteed tomorrow. The reform has been for many years against a turnover tradition, according to which state employees used to come and go. Of course, there is still much to do because such phenomena have not been eliminated, but when it comes to the Civil Service, to the public administration procedures, the friend effect, the party effect, money, all this has been greatly minimized. I cannot say that it has been minimized 100%, as it would be a lie, but it has been minimized a lot. Really, when you fight for it, you get it.”
Minister Harito explained that the recruitment reform in the administration has given a new impetus to movements within the administration, enabling employees to develop their career within the institution.
