Big Data and Disaster Safety Research Experts, Expanded Opportunities for Public Service Entry

Ministry of the Interior and Safety Reorganizes Related Civil Service Series and Categories... Strengthening Capacity to Address Current Issues Including Shortening Recruitment Period

[Asia Economy Reporter Jo In-kyung] A systemic foundation will be established to allow government ministries and local governments to separately recruit and nurture data administration experts and research personnel in the disaster and safety fields. As proactive and creative policy implementation using big data analysis and utilization becomes more active, the need to hire related experts has increased, and to strengthen the government's overall response capabilities to increasingly large-scale and complex disasters and safety accidents.

The Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of Personnel Management announced that five presidential decree amendments related to personnel, including the 'Local Public Officials Appointment Decree,' 'Regulations on the Appointment of Local Research and Guidance Officials,' 'Public Officials Appointment Decree,' 'Public Officials Appointment Examination Decree,' and 'Regulations on the Appointment of Research and Guidance Officials,' passed the Cabinet meeting on the 15th.

The amendments first reorganized the public official job series and job categories system to reflect newly emerging administrative demands such as 'data-driven administration.' They established a data job category responsible for data-driven administration in each agency and a disaster safety research job series to conduct research in the disaster and safety fields, specifying exam subjects such as database theory, algorithms, artificial intelligence, disaster management theory, safety management theory, and disaster-related laws and regulations.

On the other hand, for efficient personnel management, job series and categories such as transportation, security, pyrometallurgy, forestry, agrochemistry, and fishery manufacturing, which have low utilization in line with the times and are hardly used in each ministry without practical distinction, were consolidated or abolished.

The amendments also shortened the recruitment period to quickly fill necessary personnel in urgent situations such as disasters or disease outbreaks. The current public competitive recruitment announcement period of 10 days or more can be shortened in emergencies like disaster occurrences, and instead of the mandatory recruitment inspection committee during the recruitment process, an external observer system can be used.

Additionally, through the external observer system, where one or more external individuals objectively observe the career competitive recruitment exam process such as document screening and interviews and can suggest opinions if necessary, the time required for recruitment can be reduced while ensuring fairness in hiring.

Furthermore, if a successful candidate in the career competitive recruitment exam resigns after appointment, additional successful candidates can be selected within a certain period without conducting a new recruitment exam to quickly fill the necessary personnel.

Moreover, the amendments include provisions allowing English and foreign language proficiency test scores submitted by examinees to the Ministry of Personnel Management to be jointly used by other national agencies. This aims to improve administrative efficiency by providing information upon request not only to central ministries such as police, fire, and military personnel who replace English subjects with proficiency tests but also to local governments, the National Assembly, and courts.

Accordingly, examinees preparing for multiple public official exams are expected to significantly reduce their exam preparation burden.

Lee Jae-gwan, Director of Local Autonomy and Decentralization at the Ministry of the Interior and Safety, said, "The role of public officials with expertise is essential to proactively and actively respond to unpredictable crisis situations," adding, "We expect that this amendment will strengthen the government's capability to respond to changing environments."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.