Judicial blow by the High Court of Justice of Asturias (TSJA) to the personnel selection process of the Audit Committee. The Judicial Section of the TSJA has just cancelled 25 of the 39 job positions of the Audit Committee. It deems that the body that has the mission to audit the accounts of the Principality and to ensure that their recruitment processes and those of municipalities are legal, abused the procedure for the provision of jobs in 24 cases; this means a customized exam for Public Service to appoint reliable civil servants, or directly appoint workers without any exam. An appeal can be filed against the decision.
The setback for the Audit Committee is double. On the one hand, the magistrates reject the fact that the Audit Committee has used the free appointment to cover the position of audit director, one of the most important positions in its structure. Eight years ago, the same Court annulled the nomination, or direct appointment, of several positions, among which was the one of audit director. The General Board of the General Assembly, the governing body of the autonomous parliament, precisely relied on that ruling to oppose now the decision of the Audit Committee to cover that position arbitrarily. "That is why the position shall not be provided under the procedure of free appointment", the sentence says, to which LA NUEVA ESPAÑA has accessed.
The second batch of cancelled positions of the RPT (Job Positions´ List) of the Audit Committee is much longer: it affects no less than 65 percent of the positions (24 out of 39) of the body that must ensure the application of the principles of legality in recruitment in the Autonomous Administration and the municipalities and other entities such as communities of municipalities.
Specifically, the ruling ridicules the customized exam for Public Service, which consisted of a report and an interview, to cover 6 auditor positions, 12 for audit technicians, 3 for audit assistants and 3 lawyer positions.
The General Board of the General Assembly, after listening to the legal services of the Autonomous Chamber, also recorded its "unfavorable consideration" to the format of specific exam for Public Service, with a report and an interview, despite of which the list of job positions of the Audit Committee maintained that procedure for "a high number of jobs, 24 out of 39". The Committee´s Representative, Avelino Viejo, sent a letter justifying the requirement of a report and an interview in "the specialty of the tasks" of the Committee. The ruling of the TSJA concludes that "the argument of the Representative is too vague because the functions of each position do not appear in the Job Positions List".
