Social Affairs Ministry Moves to Reintroduce Supervisory Job Exams in Cooperatives

Faisal Matar: The Ministry of Social Affairs is moving to re-administer the examinations for applicants for supervisory positions in cooperative societies, and to disregard their recent results, following the failure of the majority of candidates and the receipt of dozens of complaints from citizens. Hundreds of competitors took the exam, yet only a very small number passed.

A senior source told Al-Qabas that the decision to re-administer the tests, in coordination with the private university responsible for them, comes in pursuit of the principle of justice and equal opportunity for all applicants.

In this regard, Deputy Minister of Social Affairs Dr. Khaled Al-Ajmi has formed an investigative committee to probe the examinations for supervisory positions in cooperative societies. The committee is chaired by the Director of the Legal Affairs Department, with the Head of the Investigations Department serving as deputy, and includes four other members from the Legal Affairs Department.

According to the decision, the committee is tasked with reviewing the scientific material submitted by the ministry to the university, the examinations prepared for the supervisory job applicants, and the results of these exams. It will also review the exam questions against the scientific material to determine whether the questions were drawn from the provided material, and investigate allegations regarding the possible leakage of exam questions.

The decision grants the committee the authority to summon any person it deems necessary to appear before it and hear their testimony, as well as the right to visit any entity and request access to all relevant documents and papers related to the investigation. The committee’s recommendations shall be issued by a majority vote of those present.

The decision sets a maximum deadline of seven working days for the committee to complete its work, which may be extended according to investigative requirements. The committee must submit a report on its findings to the Deputy Minister for presentation to the Minister of Social Affairs.

Review of Procedures

Minister of Social Affairs, Family, and Childhood Dr. Amthal Al-Hawila had directed the formation of the investigative committee to review the clarity, sufficiency, and appropriateness of the scientific material for the nature of the supervisory positions and their requirements. The committee is also tasked with identifying the entity and individuals responsible for preparing, reviewing, approving, and submitting the material, as well as detailing their qualifications, experience, and the bases upon which they prepared it.

The directives included examining the appropriateness of the difficulty level of the questions for the purpose of the exam, the correctness of their formulation, their balance, and their ability to measure the professional competence of applicants fairly and objectively.

The directives extended to reviewing all procedures followed in preparing, storing, printing, transporting, and distributing the exam, identifying individuals who had access to it at various stages, and verifying allegations that any person was allowed to view the questions before the exam date.

They also included compiling and examining complaints from applicants, assessing compliance with principles of integrity, transparency, and equal opportunity, identifying any deficiencies or responsibilities, if any, and verifying the validity of the power outage during the exam and its impact on applicants.

The directives required providing the Minister’s Office with copies of all documents, paper and electronic records, and logs related to the scientific material and the exam. It also mandated submitting a detailed report outlining the committee’s findings on responsibilities and recommendations, as well as assessing the integrity of the scientific material and the exam, and the validity of the results for accreditation, to enable the necessary actions based on the investigation’s outcomes.