Greater use of the Internet could reduce nepotism in government hiring, reports Niveen Wahish Ask the majority of Egyptian young men and women why they do not have a job and they will tell you it is because they lack the necessary kosa. The vegetable savvy foreigner will recognise kosa as Arabic for courgette. While the vegetable has no direct bearing on the hiring or firing of individuals, it has also come to mean the kind of contacts that ensure someone is hired. The government has now declared war on such favouritism. Ahmed Darwish, minister of state for administrative development, issued a new decree stipulating recruitment rules for all government posts. The decree aims to ensure individuals are hired only on merit. The move is a result of joint efforts between the ministry and the Central Agency for Organisation and Administration. The decree stipulates that individuals contracted for government jobs face the same criteria as those seeking permanent appointment. Vacant positions and the needed qualifications must now be openly advertised. Applicants will be required to sit entrance tests and final selections will be based on competence. Government agencies seeking to recruit new employees will henceforth be obliged to announce vacancies on the Internet, on the government portal as well as the website of the concerned ministry or authority, together with the required qualifications. "To be accepted applicants must meet the qualifications posted with the job announcement," Ashraf Abdel-Wahab, deputy to the minister of state for administrative development, told Al-Ahram Weekly. The new decree also requires the results of the selection process to be made pubic, and require five per cent of vacancies to be reserved for applicants with special needs. The new rules, says Abdel-Wahab, apply to all vacancies where the salary is paid directly from the public purse except for six-month, non-renewable contracts. But are there any guarantees that the law will work given the extent of nepotism? Yes, says Abdel-Wahab, who points out that anyone who meets the qualifications but is not accepted for the job has the right to go to court. "At least now we will now know about vacancies and can apply for them," says Amr Fawzi, a graduate of the Faculty of Commerce. "But so will thousands of others." Fawzi doubts that he would go to court should his application be turned down. "It would be too much of a hassle." Landing a government job is a difficult business. Though the pay is dismal, securing an official position is still viewed as an attractive proposition. A study by Doha Abdelhamid and Laila El-Baradei, commissioned by the Egyptian Centre for Economic Studies, revealed that individuals seek government employment for the sake of job security and accompanying benefits such as health and social insurance. The short working day at government authorities also enables employees to take on second jobs informally to supplement their income. This latest decree is part of the broader framework to promote e- government, spearheaded by the Ministry of State for Administrative Development. Its success in offering an increasing number of government services online was acknowledged by the 2010 United Nations e-Government Survey: Leveraging e-government at a time of financial and economic crisis. The report ranked Egypt 23rd among the UN's 192 member countries, up from 162nd in 2003.
