Almost seven out of ten public servants in Cyprus hold university qualifications, while the majority of the employees are female, according to the Public Service Commission (PSC) annual report for 2023 presented to President of the Republic, Nikos Christodoulides, on Thursday. 

Speaking during a press conference Chairman of the Commission, George Papageorgiou, said that figures also show that in 2023 there were 7,821 women (64.17% rate) and 4,368 men (35.83% rate)in the public sector.

Regarding the level of education of civil servants in 2023, Papageorgiou said that 68.26% held university qualifications (bachelor's or master's degrees). He further noted that only 9% of those appointed in 2023 in the positions that do not require university qualifications had secondary education qualifications.

As he noted, there were a total of 15,652 statutory positions in the Public Service in 2023 of which 12,142 were filled and 3,510 remained vacant.

Regarding the average age of newly hired employees, Papageorgiou pointed out that in 2023 it dropped to 34.17 years of age, compared to 37.94 in 2019.

As regards the new evaluation system for civil servants, he described it as  a positive step, noting that however there are challenges that must be taken into account if we want it to be beneficial for both employees and their supervisors.

He also said that the Commission met in a total of 227 sessions in 2023 and handled 3,804 issues, of which 53% related to procedures for filling positions and 2% to disciplinary cases. PSC decided on 1,483 positions, of which 599 were appointments and 884 promotions. In 2022 there were 610 appointments and 722 promotions.

Papageorgiou said that up until August 15 of current year, the Commission decided on 645 positions, of which 364 were appointments and 281 were promotions.

In 2024 there was an increase in the number of oral exams for appointments and promotions. According to Papageorgiou, the Commission accepted 750 candidates in an oral exam, compared to 373 in 2022.

In 2023 the Commission also imposed 8 disciplinary penalties in the context of adjudicating disciplinary cases or following a disciplinary procedure after a criminal conviction of the employees. In particular, it imposed the penalty of severe reprimand on 2 employees, the penalty of demotion in salary scale on 1 employee, the penalty of forced retirement on 3 employees and the penalty of dismissal on 2 employees.

He further explained how the new grading system works noting that so far a total of 9,658 employees were evaluated and the average score of evaluated employees was 8,747, the average score of non-exchangeable staff was 8,751 and the average score of exchangeable staff was 8,724.

There were a total of 1,502 objections submitted in 2023 of which 1,371 were not accepted, 112 were accepted and 19 were partially accepted.

Based on data, some employees raised the issue of different/unequal treatment and the lack of a single evaluation measure.

Papageorgiou noted that evaluators and evaluated employees should receive more intensive and repeated training, as well as better and more complete information with the aim of understanding the new system.