The president of the Independent Trade Union Center and Civil Servants (CSIF), Miguel Borra Izquierdo, demanded that public positions from the rank of general director be made up of officials and not trusted personnel, when listing the list of requests that were addressed to the Minister. of Digital Transformation and Public Function just one day before the union will revalidate him in office. However, this demand seems to have no effect, since José Luis Escrivá understands that it is positive to maintain the exception provided for in the law, given that there are areas in which there are no specialized personnel within the General State Administration (AGE) such as artificial intelligence or innovation in the broad sense.
“The exception to a general director being a civil servant has to exist and has been used by all governments to different measures,” the head of the competent portfolio settled this Thursday, in response to questions asked by Senator Inmaculada Hernández in the Function Commission. Publish. “What happens is that as transformations occur in public functions and we have not modified either the curricula or this very stagnant system that we had in the Administration as a form of access, we find ourselves with a growing gap between what is required in some areas and the skills of officials” he assessed.
The minister has invited broad-mindedness regarding the profiles that may need to be placed at the head of the general directorates, the bodies that manage a specific area of work and that depend on a secretariat of State or general secretariat, depending on how it is the designed organizational chart of each ministry. These appointments are regulated in article 66.2 of law 40/2015 of the Legal Regime of the Public Sector, which establishes that in general, career officials of the State, of the autonomous communities or local entities of the subgroup must be appointed. A 1 person . who have been, but who have already retired.
However, it includes an exception that different governments have taken advantage of to appoint personnel they trust who do not have a career in the public sector. “Except that the royal decree of structure allows that, in response to the specific characteristics of the functions of the general management, its holder does not meet the status of official” states the norm, which obliges the Executive to detail in a reasoned report the istical characteristics that justify the exceptional nature. In addition, the person is required to comply with the “suitability requirements” reflected in Law 3/2015 on senior positions: good repute, training and experience in the position they will hold in the Public Administration.
The Supreme Court limits its use
In recent years, the Supreme Court has ruled on this matter on different occasions in response to appeals filed by the Federation of Associations of Higher Bodies of the State Civil Administration (Fedeca). The last time was this Wednesday, when he opposed suspending the appointment of 15 general directors who were not career civil servants as a precautionary measure, as he had requested that this professional association do, according to the newspaper ‘La Razón’, although he will continue studying whether said Designations are duly justified in royal decree 1009/2023 of December 5, so a ruling will be issued in the coming months. These are positions integrated into the ministries of Transport, Education, Health, Labor and Social Economy, Democratic Memory.
The Government justified all of them in the need to have previous experience in the position, as it requires transversal knowledge, practical experience in the private sector, specialization in international affairs or the ability to design innovative policies. The Court will have to analyze these explanations individually, but there are already seven other sentences in which the court urges to measure and justify each use of this figure. In fact, in May 2022 it made the decision to annul the appointments of the general directors of Sports and Rights of Persons with Disabilities for not having duly justified this exception in 2021.
In this context, Escrivá has expressed his doubts about being able to find within the public sector profiles specialized in emerging industries such as AI, which has barely been introduced into the actions of the Public Administration. However, he has committed to carrying out an ‘expression of interest’ when a position with this rank has to be filled so that people who believe they meet the requirements for the position – whether they come from the public or private sphere – can introduce oneself. and then it is an independent court that makes the decision, a process that wants to guarantee that it is discreet.
