On December 13, the Georgian Dream supported amendments [1] in the illegitimate Parliament that leave public officers without legal protections. The amendments render meaningless the civil service reform that has been implemented for several years, entirely subjecting the civil service to the partisan will. All this is one more step towards state capture.

The Georgian Dream has followed through its threat to public officers – that the dissatifaction expressed by them would be “met with a response” – within days. In particular, the party simplified its task by including provisions in the Law on Civil Service that allow them to dismiss public officers at will. Specifically:   

The procedure for appointing individuals to civil service positions is changed:

• Mid-level officials will no longer be considered as public officers appointed for life. Once the law takes effect, the current heads and deputy heads of departments and services will be reclassified as employees under administrative agreements, which means that their working conditions will change and they will no longer hold lifetime appointments. The head of the agency/minister will be able to give them a warning a month in advance any time and dismiss them;  
• In the event of the appointment of the head of the agency/minister, all the aforementioned officials are to resign from their positions. Despite the fact that, after this law takes effect, the said public officers will continue their activity under an administrative agreement and with deteriorated working conditions, according to the law, their agreement will be automatically terminated in the event of the appointment of a new minister;
• The procedure of appointment without a competition is back. A new head/minister will have the right to appoint individuals, without competition, to various senior positions in the civil service (e.g., head/deputy head of department, head/deputy head of service, etc.) on the basis of a contract, for the duration of their term in office. Not only are the individuals not required to take part in a competition; from now onwards, they are no longer required to have a higher education degree and be proficient in the state language. All this increases the risks of nepotism and undermines the independence and professional standards of the civil service;      
• The term of office of civil service officials is now limited to the minister’s tenure. This means that every new minister will have the authority to appoint the head and deputy heads of departments as they wish. At the time of appointment, they will only take into account the individual’s loyalty to their immediate superior, not their qualifications. This completely undermines the stability and erodes the institutional memory of the civil service.   

The system of assessment of public officers is changed:

• Public officers will be assessed twice a year instead of once a year – in particular, in the event of two negative assessments, they will be made to leave the job within one year instead of two years. A new official brought by a new minister will have the authority to easily dismiss his/her subordinates;
• The head of an institution will be authorized to amend the assessment of a public officer made by their immediate superior. The head of an institution will be able to amend the assessment made by the immediate superior of a public officer, which may become the grounds for the dismissal of these individuals or for the retention of 20% of their salary. This change also serves to ensure that if a new head of the institution tries to dismiss undesirable individuals, the assessment of the immediate superior will no longer be an obstacle, and he/she will be able to dismiss even highly qualified employees.  

The labor guarantees of public officers are abolished

If a public officer dismissed due to reorganization wins a case in court, they will no longer be reinstated and will be placed in reserve.