Widespread delays, up to six hours of waiting for an exam that has finally been postponed, problems identifying the tests or lack of guarantee of anonymity, mothers with nursing babies waiting hours, and images of an opponent taking the exam on top of a trash can. The Generalitat has admitted this Saturday “very serious incidents” in the tests carried out in Barcelona within the opposition process to convert interim officials. Some exams in which 13,581 applicants (9,000 in Barcelona), most of them temporary staff, opted for 1,825 permanent positions. The general director of Public Function, Alícia Corral, has described the situation as “very serious”, has apologized to the applicants and has pointed to the company hired to carry out the tests, Cegos.
It was the first time that the Generalitat outsourced tests, “because of its size”, Corral has justified, who has opened the door to terminating the contract in the face of a situation that he has described as “intolerable”. By contract, the Cegos firm also had to validate the exams, all multiple choice, by means of an optical reader. “Suffering will be adequately repaired, we empathize with the situations experienced and we must guarantee the principles of equality, merit and capacity.” The Public Function Personnel Selection Office is analyzing the “legal consequences to purify responsibilities”. Regarding the possibility of repeating the tests, it is a possibility that he has not ruled out, although he has referred to the report at all times and has reproached the company for still not providing data on the same day of the tests in the afternoon. For example, how many exams could not be taken (in principle it would only be those of a classroom) or how many people have been examined in the Faculty of Economics.
“It is a very complicated situation, a gruesome scenario,” says Assumpta Barbens from the IAC union. The Faculty of Economics is one of the ones that has gathered the most temporary exams for exams that were supposed to start at 9 in the morning and ended up starting after 11 a.m. “In addition to legal uncertainty, these incidents lead to a loss of concentration when carrying out the tests,” says Barbens. The Public Function area of the Department of the Presidency analyzes the incidents and will report on measures to be taken late this afternoon.
The networks attest to situations of delays and incidents in various faculties: Economics, but also Pharmacy, Mathematics or Philology. Among the complaints, response sheets that have been delivered with name, surname and ID, when they should be anonymous and be identified with a code. Or overcrowded classrooms, heat and exams where the option did not appear (if general, legal, economic). And the case of those who opted for places for social workers, whose examination has been postponed after six hours of waiting.
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The PSC has considered the incidents “inadmissible” and branded as “incomprehensible” that opponents have had to wait more than two hours to take an exam. Alicia Romero, socialist spokesperson, has described the organizational capacity of the Government as “zero” and will ask Parliament for explanations. “The lack of foresight and the inability to organize cry out to heaven”, she has stated on the net.
If anyone has passed through the Barcelona University Zone early this Saturday and has seen a ton of people in front of some faculties, they were Generalitat workers who aspire to become civil servants. Although residual, there were also people without employment links with the Catalan administration, to be tested, although they have fewer possibilities. The Government has called this weekend the opposition tests to stabilize the interim. There are 13,581 applicants for 1,825 places. The first major ones since the cuts in the administration since the economic crisis that started in 2008.
At the gates of the Faculty of Economics, there had been nerves since 8.30 in the morning. And a lot of patience. Because the doors had to open at 9 o’clock and they did so 20 minutes late. Before 11 o’clock the exams had not yet been distributed. Finally, they have started at 11:02 am, indicated the blackboard of one of the many classrooms. Hundreds of people have been examined in this faculty alone. At the doors of the classes, everyone with ID in hand and notice to navigators: “We remind you that access to the exam with any electronic device turned on and connected to the Internet is strictly prohibited.” At the table, the applicants could have water, two pens and tipex. And they faced two tests: a theoretical one (with a generic syllabus or their specialty) and another one with practical cases. Among the complaints, there are also some due to the physical proximity between applicants when taking the tests.
Contest Oposició d’Estabilització
Chaos, disorganization, grotesque, fraud, incompetence. We could go on and on defining what is the pitjor procés d’oposicions in the history of the Generalitat de Catalunya. https://t.co/SkqxyGnsmj
Exams start at 11 am pic.twitter.com/KUhZTPWlKy
— IAC CATAC (@CATAC_IAC) April 29, 2023
Among the applicants, a variety of profiles: lawyers, administrators, social educators, and a twenty-something in a corner, Sergi, 25, like a flan and reviewing the agenda “because this is sure to come in.” Mar, María and Raúl opt for administration and services positions in the Department of Justice (prisons, day centers, juvenile justice), where they have been working as interims for almost seven years and more than three years. “Let’s see, there are 13 places for 200 people,” they sighed. There was also a teacher who works in the Department of Feminisms, lawyers who work in the legal services of the Rural Agents, or professionals from the Department of the Presidency.
In the groups, the mental calculation was flying: if they have so much seniority, so many merits, I get such a grade and there are so many places. But there is also confusion. The number of 943 applicants is on the lips of many, but there was no consensus on how many places they aspire to. If one, seven or 14. “No, seven are for the disabled, one is that it must be that of a journalist,” they calculated in a small group. A physical disability has Estefanía, who presented herself after several years of experience to be an administrator. Like now, but she fixed.
The most nervous were the ones who realistically had a choice. “I have been here for five years, I have 32 merits out of 40. Yesterday I was terrible, but seeing so many people I think that I still have no options. It is ridiculous that you have to compete with so many people having seniority, ”complained an employee who did not want to give her name. Next to her, Blanca, considered it “unfair” that all the tests are done on the same day: “If you can apply for several positions, they eliminate the option of presenting yourself to several bodies.” In her case, she could be examined for higher administrative and technical. And to the general and specific tests.
In the two exams this Saturday there were 9,147 applicants in Barcelona, 1,246 in Girona, 1,634 in Lleida and 1,554 in Tarragona. The positions to which they applied are 1,534 for civil servants (administration and services, criminal enforcement, and the legal profession) and 291 positions for transversal labor personnel. There are also 383 more jobs in non-transversal job categories, according to a statement from the Ministry of Public Function of the Department of the Presidency.
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