Cyprus’ much-touted reform of the public service evaluation system is failing to deliver, with most ministries and departments continuing to ignore or openly violate the new framework, the head of the Public Service Commission (PSC), Giorgos Papageorgiou, said on Monday.

Speaking at a press conference to present the Commission’s 2024 work, Papageorgiou warned that evaluation practices remain dominated by outdated, uniform approaches. He highlighted that the average employee score rose to 9.01 out of 10 in 2024, compared with 8.74 in 2023, pointing to the persistence of inflated grading. In some cases, scores reached near-perfect levels: the Famagusta District Administration recorded a 10, the Health Ministry 9.84, and the Judicial Service 9.55.

Only the Deputy Ministry of Shipping, the Department of Information Technology Services, and the Press and Information Office showed meaningful compliance with the new standards, he noted. “Evaluators have clearly not grasped the magnitude of their responsibility,” Papageorgiou said, adding that training efforts had not produced the expected results and must be repeated.

The PSC president stressed that department heads and directors need to intervene before the system’s credibility is irreparably undermined. The reform, legislated in 2022, aimed to correct decades of “flattened” evaluation outcomes, where nearly all civil servants were graded as excellent regardless of performance.

Beyond evaluations, Papageorgiou outlined the Commission’s broader activities in 2024. These included the successful establishment of an EU-funded examination centre to professionalise recruitment and promotions, the launch of a dynamic procurement system for exam services, and 1,014 staffing decisions (613 appointments and 401 promotions). The PSC also convened 221 times, handled 3,113 issues, and interviewed 840 candidates for entry-level and promotion positions.

Data presented also shed light on the public sector’s profile: nearly 70% of the 12,179 employees hold university or postgraduate degrees, while women make up 64% of the workforce across both scientific and non-scientific roles. Although men gain slight ground in middle- and senior-management positions, women still hold the majority.

The civil service also skews older, with only 7.2% of staff aged 18–34, compared with 67% between 35–54 and 25.7% above 55.

Papageorgiou acknowledged delays in fully implementing new recruitment procedures due to late approval of updated service schemes in July 2024. While promotions have moved ahead, first-appointment and interdepartmental promotions only began being advertised in the final quarter of the year.

Looking ahead, he said the reforms provide “a significant shift” in filling senior positions, placing greater weight on candidates’ skills and competencies through assessment centre processes. But unless evaluation practices change at the ground level, he warned, the credibility of the public service reform risks being severely weakened.