From the Staff Committee 2012-2013
(202) 458-6230
August 8, 2012
SN- 8 /11-12 Original : Español
Order of Precedence of Competitions
The 2012–2013 Staff Committee informs staff members that, on August 1st, 2012, a letter was sent to the Secretary General in response to a letter from the Chief of Staff dated July 20, (attached), in which he explained the reasons for continuing with the competition to fill the vacancy of Director of the Department of Public Security, level P-5 with a Series B contract (long term).
Among the reasons stated by the Chief of Staff are the following:
a) The need to “identify a leader for the Department of Public Security to whom the Member States can entrust mandates and the donors assign resources”.
b) Holding this competition does not imply “delaying or changing the competitions schedule […] since the Department of Human Resources can carry out this additional competition without affecting the order established in the schedule”.
With regard to the above, the Staff Committee would like to highlight the following:
a) Need to identify a leader for the Department of Public Security to whom the Member States can entrust mandates and the donors assign resources
1. Area Directors are needed in all departments of the General Secretariat and all Departments are entrusted with mandates and receive funding from the Member States and other donors.
2. It is clear that the decision made by the Secretariat not only favors the position of Director in the Department of Public Security over other departments that currently have Acting Directors, but it also continues to extend preferential treatment in individual cases
3. The Staff Committee considers that it is in the best interest of the Organization to carry out pending competitions before holding new ones, so that the General Secretariat would cease to incur in a violation of articles 19 and 44 of the General Standards.
4. The aforementioned competition should be added at the end of the competitions schedule and, until the current backlog has been eliminated, priority should be given to expediting pending competitions before convening new ones. Since an Acting Director has already been named in this particular case, it is no longer urgent to hold an external competition. Adding it at the end of the competitions schedule would be consistent with similar cases in other departments of the General Secretariat
b) The Department of Human Resources will carry out the competition without affecting the order of the established schedule.
1. The Staff Association has requested that the competitions schedule be updated and published for the information of the Staff. This request has not been met.
2. The Staff Committee has repeatedly requested the Administration to expedite the competition process by convening the candidates in groups of twenty-five (25), instead of the current groups of sixteen (16). In its response, the General Secretariat stated that: a) The Human Resources Department does not have enough personnel to expedite the competitions; and b) expediting the competitions would imply additional expenses for the General Secretariat due to potential requests for recognition of dependents and updates in social security contributions.
3. Even though the proposal of the Committee was not taken into account, in this specific case, the General Secretariat decided to add an additional competition to the next group of competitions (Group 5 July-September) thereby disregarding the order of precedence established. This disproves the reasons given to the Staff Committee and shows that the DHR has the resources to expedite competitions and that the Secretariat has the necessary funds to carry them out.
4. The call for an external competition for the vacancy of Director of the Department of Public Security ignores the need to carry out pending competitions in order of precedence, shows the preferential treatment that the General Secretariat extends in certain cases, contravenes applicable norms, and damages the image of the Organization and the transparency of the competitive selection process.
Considering the above reasons, the Staff Committee reiterates its request to the GS to:
• Respect the rights of all staff members as well as the selection procedures established in the norms and regulations.
• Publish the updated competition schedule including all those staff members who, independently of the funding source, have served in the General Secretariat for more than 3 years or have received subsidies for special functions for more than 18 months and whose situation should be regularized.
• Hold competitions for continuing contracts as soon as possible.
• Hold the competition for Director of the Department of Public Security taking into account the order of precedence established in the list of positions that must be opened to competition and that this same procedure be applied to all pending competitions for Directors at the GS/OAS.
• Increase the number of candidates for each group from the current 16 to 25.
• Cease new recruitments financed by Regular Funds or (RF) or ICR until the backlog of competitions is eliminated.
Call for Résumés
In response to numerous inquiries received on the topic of Call for Résumés, the 2012-2013 Staff Committee informs staff members of the General Secretariat that:
1. OAS rules do not contemplate a Call for Résumés as an approved mechanism for selection and recruitment of personnel; a Call for Résumés is not a competition as such and as defined in the current regulations. The Secretariat should not promote this nonexistent figure to give the appearance of transparency and objectivity in the selection of personnel for the General Secretariat.
2. According to information provided by the DHR, the selection of staff through a Call Résumés only involves the area director and DHR does not participate in the process; this implies that DHR does not allocate resources to this process and also that the selection continues being at the discretion of the person in charge of the area, as it is for CPRs.
3. According to information provided by staff recruited through a Call for Résumés, the DHR does participate in the interviews of candidates in coordination with the areas, which implies that time and resources are diverted from pending competitions established in the General Standards to prioritize a procedure that is not regulated.
4. The Staff Committee deems necessary that staff be selected through competitions following the procedures established in the General Standards and Staff Rule 104.7, which establish the involvement of the Selection and Promotion Committee as part of the selection process.
Considering the above, the Staff Committee reiterates its request to the GS to:
• Respect the selection procedures established in the norms and regulations.
• Cease new recruitments financed by Regular Funds (RF) or ICR until the backlog of competitions is eliminated.