Medan officers take examination

Apriadi Gunawan, The Jakarta Post, Medan

Seeking promotions, more than 1,000 mid-level civil servants of the North Sumatra provincial administration underwent tests of their knowledge and managerial skills on Wednesday.

The screening the 1,204 civil servants took place at the governor's office and the hall of the University of North Sumatra, where they also completed earlier tests in English, psychology and physical checkups.

Some of the tests were administered by civil servants' subordinates.

Assistant for Administrative Reform Ridha Amran Siregar said that the testing was carried out to fill the second-ranked positions which were scheduled to be settled before the end of December.

"The program will also be useful to enrich our database on civil servants," he added, "especially in inventorying their potential and achievements."

Ridha said his office has received names of officials at another provincial administration recommended by Jakarta to be assessed for the top-echelon positions.

Councillor Zahrin Piliang, the secretary of the council's Commission I overseeing the administration, urged Governor Rizal Nurdin to make public the test results to ensure that the administration assigned the right men to the appropriate posts.

"We've found too many cases of unprofessional staffing in the administration -- we deemed the placement full of corruption, collusion and nepotism practices," he told The Jakarta Post at his office. "That's why we urged such a test."