For two months now, the Ministry of Interior has failed to provide information on the formation of commissions for assessing the knowledge, abilities, and skills of applicants for police officer positions, as well as for conducting integrity checks of candidates.
On April 28 this year, Institute Alternative addressed the Ministry of Interior (MoI) requesting information on the criteria for selecting prominent experts to sit on the commission for testing the knowledge of future police officers, as well as who will be members of the commissions for assessing knowledge and abilities, and integrity and professional competences. Specifically, we requested the text of the public call for the selection of a member from among prominent experts in relevant fields (security, human rights, information technology), as well as the text of the public call for the selection of a member from among certified gender equality experts, along with information on where the public call was published.
We remind that Article 16 of the Rulebook on the Implementation of the Special Recruitment Procedure for Police Officers stipulates that the Commission for the assessment of candidates’ knowledge, abilities, and skills shall consist of five members, two of whom are selected through a public call – one from among prominent experts in the relevant field, and one from among certified gender equality experts. This is one of four commissions overseeing the selection of applicants, and the only one that requires members to be chosen through a public call.
In our request, we also asked for copies of the decisions on the formation of two commissions – the commission for assessing the knowledge, abilities, and skills of applicants, and the commission for assessing the integrity and professional competences of applicants within the special recruitment procedure.
However, even two months after submitting the request, the Ministry of Interior has not provided a response, which prompted us to file an appeal with the Agency for Personal Data Protection and Free Access to Information. We also tried to obtain this information directly from the MoI cabinet, to which we sent a letter on June 16, but we again received no reply.
We recall that on April 15 this year, the MoI published a list of applicants for police officer positions, stating that the candidates are subject to security clearance checks and assessments of special psychological and physical fitness for police work, conducted under an expedited procedure. Those candidates who pass these checks are then subject to further assessment of knowledge, abilities, competences, and skills. Nevertheless, the public remains without information as to when the formation of this commission is planned, whether the process of selecting experts has already begun, and what the criteria for their selection will be.
Given the importance of transparency in the process of strengthening the capacities of police officers through the implementation of the special recruitment procedure, and in order to eliminate doubts regarding the selection of those who will decide on candidates, we believe that the Ministry of Interior should provide answers on these issues.
Dragana Jaćimović
Institute Alternative