300 allowed to sit civil service test
300 allowed to sit civil service test
JAKARTA (JP): Three hundred civil servant applicants, who did
not receive a notification letter from the municipality, were
allowed to join yesterday's test despite earlier plans to fail
them.
The applicants did not receive a test identification number --
and were considered ineligible for the test -- due to a postal
service delay, an official said.
"The city is trying to be fair to all prospective applicants.
Therefore, we allowed the 300 applicants to take the test in
separate groups and we'll determine their test numbers later,"
Deputy Governor for Administrative Affairs Abdul Kahfi said
yesterday.
The decision was made in response to complaints by city
councilors and applicants.
Councilor Hibiyah Rochim from Commission A for administrative
affairs said yesterday that it was not the applicants' fault that
the test notification letters sent by post did not arrive between
Oct. 21 and 27.
She urged the municipality to find a better method of
selection.
"Don't play with people's faith. These applicants are really
looking forward to the opportunity to become a civil servant,"
she said.
Councilor Hotma Tambunan, the head of Commission A, shared
Hibiyah's views.
"Why did the officials use the postal service when they know
that it is risky? They have to find another way to make the
announcement, such as through the newspapers," he said.
This year, some 25,000 people applied for jobs as civil
servants. After administrative selections, the city invited
16,000 applicants to take yesterday's test at Senayan Indoor
Stadium to determine the successful candidates for 1,265
positions.
Some of the 300 applicants, who did not receive a notification
letter, went to the application committee's office on Jl. Rasuna
Said, Central Jakarta, on Monday to express their
dissatisfaction, Ma'mun Amin, the head of Jakarta Officials
Bureau said yesterday.
The angry applicants reportedly tore up application documents
and yelled at officials when they were not supplied with test
numbers.
In a related development yesterday, a civil servants test in
Bogor, West Java, was disrupted by claims of bribery.
Some of the applicants claimed that officials had asked them
to pay between Rp 2.5 million (US$694) and Rp 5 million if they
wanted to pass the test.
"There is potential for bribery in this case because out of
the 500 applicants in Bogor, only 35 of them will be accepted," a
Bogor city official, who asked for anonymity, said.
Anas J. Rasmana, a city spokesman, denied the accusations.
"It is not true that there was bribery here," he said. "But
I'll check with my subordinates to make sure." (07/24)