Concerns over perceived ethnicity-based appointments and favouritism in public service hiring were raised this week during the Ministry of Civil Service’s presentation of its 2022–2023 annual report, prompting renewed calls for greater transparency in recruitment processes.
Rinesh Sharma, deputy chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and Defence, told the committee there is a growing public perception that appointments are influenced by ethnicity, favouritism or personal connections. He warned such beliefs risk eroding trust in the public service and urged the Ministry to set out clearly the formal policies and legal protections that govern recruitment, selection, promotion and appointments. “There is a misconception that appointments are based on ethnicity lines, favoritism, and who you know. It is important to clarify that ‘who you know’ should mean knowing someone who is capable of doing the job,” Sharma said.
In response, Permanent Secretary Pita Tagicakirewa said the Ministry addresses recruitment fairness through established mechanisms, notably the Open Merit Recruitment and Selection (OMRS) framework, which he said has been in place for some time. Tagicakirewa told the committee the Ministry relies on interview panels, Permanent Secretaries and Ministers to ensure merit-based decisions and to address concerns about bias.
The exchange is the latest development in heightened scrutiny of how the public service is staffed and managed. Calls for transparency come amid broader efforts to modernise the civil service, including a Functional Review launched last year to examine structure, operations and workforce capacity, and recent high-profile recruitment exercises such as the new Counter Narcotics Bureau. Critics and some lawmakers have previously pushed for clearer processes, stronger accountability and publication of selection criteria and outcomes to counter perceptions of partiality.
Sharma specifically asked the Ministry to provide documentary clarity on the legal frameworks that prohibit discrimination in public sector employment, signalling that parliamentarians want more than verbal assurances. The Standing Committee’s review of the Ministry’s annual report offers a forum for members to seek those documents and for the Ministry to demonstrate how the OMRS is applied in practice, including how panels are composed and decisions recorded.
The Ministry’s officials have maintained that merit-based recruitment is central to public service integrity. Whether that assurance will be accompanied by greater public disclosure of recruitment data, or new measures to restore public confidence, remains an open question as the committee continues its review of the annual report and related governance issues.
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