HYDERABAD: The Sindh Public Service Commission (SPSC) lands in hot water again over its alleged casual handling of tests and interviews for municipal officers’ posts and candidates’ open mistrust of final list of successful interviewees, many of whom are accused of using political connections to get through the job exams.

The commission reconstituted last year by the government in the light of Sindh High Court’s judgement, which had suspended the relevant Act and other enactments governing the competitive examinations control body, have seen its credibility eroded over the years.

Most candidates believe the commission has failed to ensure merit in its examinations and they are not alone in thinking so. Even some well-placed people in the commission admit the body has been plagued by officers/officials whose integrity is questionable as they have apparently helped their kith and kin to get through commission-regulated exams and land government jobs.

The situation has, regrettably, come to such a pass that jobs’ final results are questioned by the candidates who have cleared written test but failed in interviews and in some cases, repeatedly.

The commission has a new chairman and members made up of retired government officers/bureaucrats. Each member’s perks roughly costs around a hefty Rs0.5 to Rs0.6 million to be paid from the public exchequer.

Commission rejects allegations of incompetence, favouritism against interviewers, slams bid to malign it

But it appears, sadly though, that even the new-look SPSC headed by retired seasoned officer Mohammad Waseem is yet to win the trust of candidates as well as civil society.

Municipal officers’ recruitment

Recently, the commission conducted examinations for the posts of municipal officers (MOs) followed by the candidates’ interviews but the results drew a sharp reaction from the candidates who had passed written tests but failed to get a call for interview.

To add fuel to the fire, the successful candidates’ photos with government functionaries and outgoing ruling party’s leaders started circulating on social media, and the failed candidates, backed by political and civil society activists, started condemning the SPSC.

“Can you expect an SPSC member to be so informal with candidates interviewed for this post?” reacted Noman Soomro, a candidate.

“The member was seen puffing a cigar while interviewing candidates for a gazetted post. The interview ended within a few minutes. This perhaps shows SPSC had prepared its mind to conduct interviews only for the sake of formality and selections were pre-decided,” he lamented.

Candidates fails in a dozen interviews

Noman was declared ‘unsuccessful’ in 12 interviews, in a row, after he cleared written tests which was mindboggling for him. “This time the SPSC selected in MO’s interview a candidate whom it had declared a blackmailer afterwards,” he remarked.

He wondered why the commission did not comply with video-recording of the interview as ordered by the judiciary earlier. “To keep things in the dark, the father’s name of this candidate is not intentionally mentioned in the list so that he cannot easily be identified. Despite this smartness by SPSC, he stood exposed,” asserted Noman and vowed to move court.

He said the SPSC was required under judicial order to display a list of candidates with their name, identity, caste and marks obtained if their names were recommended for post. “The caste is mentioned only in a few cases,” he said.

SPSC claims transparency

The SPSC figures show that 105,748 candidates applied for 465 posts of MOs on Oct 19 and only 1.36pc (1,440) passed the test. Then 419 meritorious candidates which was 29pc of 1,440 were declared successful in the interview.

“Forty-six posts still remain vacant as the high-powered interview committee didn’t find suitable candidates. It speaks volumes for transparency and fair mechanism,” said SPSC while condemning attempts to malign the constitutional body.

The commission’s press release added that 82 among the 419 candidates were those who had passed tests for town officer’s post. Likewise, 72 out of the 419 were those who had cleared the tests conducted by the Institute of Business Administration (IBA), Sukkur.

Marks reader software

People close to the SPSC believe the software called OMR (optical marks reader) which is used by the commission for assessing answers of written test has a provision for ‘editing’. “This allows things to be managed. The only thing that failed candidates can do is to request the court to call copies of successful persons whose credentials are doubtful,” said a former SPSC employee.

The SPSC management, however, rejects it and the candidates argue that the commission does not have recordings of aspirants’ interviews.” The commission may give me just two marks in an interview but its record can at least be shared so that the entire world should know how did I fare in interview?” argued another aspirant, Usaid Zafar Chandio after his third failure in interview.

He said that he was keeping his fingers crossed for his fourth interview. “Will a candidate get 2.3 marks in an interview after obtaining attractive marks in a test?” he asked.

Officials see ‘mishandling’

Information gleaned by Dawn reveals that even the commission officials have started admitting to mishandling of the interviews conducted by a two-member committee along with a director general of local government department.

“Yes, the commission has learnt the committee took interview in a casual manner,” disclosed an SPSC official on condition of anonymity. Fifteen members were appointed but chairman himself was not satisfied with some of them, he said and added that “he can’t do anything, for it’s out of his domain”.

A former SPSC official insists: “It is difficult to prove illegalities in the process”.

The SPSC chairman promised reforms in the body. “We have already planned computer-based tests (CBT) to exclude possibilities of human involvement in [written] test and ensure transparency,” he said while talking to Dawn.

He said the commission had handled 5,500 posts since he had been in the saddle and their results did not attract any flak.

Wasim said that the MO’s post should not have been advertised with only graduation as a prerequisite in the first place. ”MA should have been the bar for MO vacancies to attract more qualified candidates but the posts were already advertised before I was appointed,” he says.

He said the revised Recruitment Management Rules 2023 had been notified in line with lessons learnt and in compliance of judicial orders. This would go a long way to overcome ‘deficiencies’ of the past 17 years, he said.

He said the commission had a redressal mechanism forum to which the aggrieved candidates could appeal; and emphasised that the government should nominate members for SPSC who had impeccable reputation and had excelled in their fields.

Published in Dawn, November 6th, 2023