A government bill setting a fixed annual cycle for filling First Appointment vacancies in the Cypriot public service was examined by the House Finance Committee on Monday, with MPs and officials raising a series of objections and proposed amendments to its timetable and procedures.
How the new cycle would work
Under the bill, written examinations to fill vacant public service posts would be held in the final four months of each year, with candidates informed of the examination material and date two months in advance. Vacancy announcements would be published in the first two months of each year (January–February), with applications submitted three weeksafter a post is announced.
Public Service Commission chairman, Georgios Papageorgiou, told the committee that once the application period closes, candidates would be asked to rank their preferences among posts (first, second and third choice). The Public Service Commission (PSC) and relevant Advisory Committees would then decide what type of examination to hold and when. Two months before an examination, the PSC and Advisory Committees must inform candidates of the exact date and the material to be examined.
He added that a Council of Ministers decree would determine which posts fall under the responsibility of Advisory Committees for examination purposes, with those committees responsible for conducting written exams and forwarding results to the PSC.
PSC chairman says the deadlines are unworkable
Mr Papageorgiou told the committee it would be "impossible to meet the timelines" set out in the bill and proposed that the new law take effect in 2028 instead. The committee's deputy chairman, Chrysis Pantelides, said this proposal would be examined at the committee's next session.
AKEL MP Andreas Pasiourtidis said the Ministry of Finance should also update the committee at its next meeting on what would happen to this year's vacant posts in the meantime.
Proposed wording change on appointments
The PSC chairman also proposed that the bill's wording be amended to replace the term "to be appointed" with "to be offered an appointment," explaining that "to be appointed" implies the candidate has already accepted the post, whereas an offer that is not accepted would leave the position unresolved.
Maria Kleanthous-Kalli, a Public Administration and Personnel Officer at the Public Administration and Personnel Department (PAPD) of the Ministry of Finance, proposed that the bill specify that written examinations be held on a date and at a location determined by the PSC or the relevant Advisory Committee, and announced in the Official Gazette of the Republic at least two months before the examination date.
Disagreement over parliamentary oversight
Mr Pasiourtidis said it must be decided who has authority to order special examinations, noting that a majority within the committee opposed giving this power to the Council of Ministers.
DISY MP Savia Orfanidou said her party wants the list of vacant posts to continue coming before Parliament, contrary to the bill's current provision that it would not. "Our disagreement is that we do not want to give up our duty to review them," she said, adding, "we will not relinquish Parliament's right to the list."
Mr Pasiourtidis responded that under the current system, the list comes to Parliament and is approved, but if the Council of Ministers were to issue a decree the following day for specialised examinations for certain posts, "I have no power to do anything about it."
Ms Kleanthous-Kalli described the process as "a purely administrative, technocratic procedure," adding that excluding posts from general written examinations is "not an end in itself."
Mr Pantelides said the matter would be examined at a future committee session, while Ms Orfanidou said DISY would table a legislative proposal on setting timelines specifically for special examinations.
Which bodies can conduct exams
On the question of which bodies may conduct examinations, the PSC chairman said the appointing authority may assign the task to the examinations service, the productivity centre, or a private university, among others.
Alma movement chairman and MP Odysseas Michaelides raised the issue of candidates facing different examinations depending on the post, general PSC exams for some, Advisory Committee exams for others, and suggested the law allow the PSC to hold a general examination first for all candidates, with those who fail excluded from the specialised examination stage.
A representative of the Public Administration Department said this approach could function as a "filter," and noted that advertising some posts separately might generate greater interest, since some posts attract very limited interest and could otherwise be excluded from the general examinations.
DISY MP Dimitris Dimitriou said one of the biggest concerns is ensuring citizens are informed in good time, adding that more information is needed than currently exists, and that a "ceiling" should be set on the number of posts filled through special examinations.
PASYDY highlights recruitment shortfall
PASYDY representative Stalo Dimitriou described a "huge problem" in filling vacant posts, citing as an example that in 2025, 36 posts for supervisors at the Ministry of Education were advertised, government examinations were held, 11 candidates who passed met the job scheme's qualifications, but only three accepted the position.
She said the issue is not the job schemes themselves but "the type of government examinations we conduct today,"adding that an attitude test would not resolve the problem.
Responding to the recruitment shortfall, the PSC chairman said "the examination is not the problem," but rather the content of the post, its job scheme, the difficulty of its duties, and the pay offered relative to those duties. "If we want to resolve these issues, we need to revisit the job schemes for these posts," he concluded.
