Turkey - 'Islamist' Gov’t plans to do away with qualifying exams for civil service.

Turkey - 'Islamist' Gov’t plans to do away with qualifying exams for civil service.(TodaysZaman).

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government has prepared an action plan to remove the obligation for candidates for positions in the civil service to take a competitive exam in order to pave the way for partisans to get employment in the government, the Taraf daily reported on Monday.

The document, designated as "top secret" and "submitted to the gentleman" -- a name commonly used to refer to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan by people around him, was published in the newspaper's edition and indicates how the government would go about removing the State Personnel Examination (KPSS) and replace it with an interview-based process, which would give an advantage to candidates with “references” from AK Party politicians.

The two-page document presented to Erdoğan states that the KPSS must be removed because most candidates who are affiliated with the ruling party received low scores on exams, thereby disqualifying them from being considered for government jobs.

It underlined that party officials at the grassroots level often receive requests from party members to intervene on behalf of partisan candidates to facilitate securing them government jobs, but they were prevented from doing so due to the exam requirement.

The report emphasized that “the employment of people who will work with our party [AK Party] with 100 percent loyalty must be secured without any preconditions in all key positions in state institutions” in order to have strong links between the AK Party and state institutions.

Taraf said a comprehensive report was prepared by several deputy chairpersons in the ruling party in close coordination with Erdoğan's advisers. The two-page summary of the report was submitted to Erdoğan. The paper claimed that the government was not even aware of the report. Considering many of these recommendations were actually covered in the pro-government media with a smear campaign against the KPSS, it appears the action plans were already put into practice.

The opposition in Turkey reacted very strongly to Taraf daily's report, saying the AK Party is trying turn the civil service into a partisan bureaucracy. “The KPSS was set up during the Eecevit era and is a very objective qualifying exam for public employees. The AK Party government is trying to place loyalists in the government by removing this exam,” Akif Hamzaçebi, the CHP's parliamentary group deputy chairman, told Today's Zaman.

“The goal is to establish a partisan state,” he said, stressing that in the new system candidates will likely be asked how long they have been members of the AK Party and how many times they voted for the AK Party. MHP Deputy Chairman Oktay Vural also lambasted the government for removing equal opportunities in public employment.

He said the document published by Taraf exposing how Erdoğan is plotting to remove the KPSS is very important. “This shows a real parallel state was established by Erdoğan in the presidential office,” he told Today's Zaman. Hmmmm........."Ein Ummah, Ein Fuhrer" ....No intelligence needed, All you need to qualify is a AKP a.k.a. Muslim Brotherhood card. Read the full story here.