MiBACT competition, participants' complaint: thousands of us gave up because of bad organization

Participants in the competition at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage for 1,052 positions of enjoyment, reception and supervision assistants report that more than half of the entrants could not participate in the competition due to poor organization. Estimating this are the professionals of the association Mi Riconosci? I am a cultural heritage professional, who have been active for years in the field of cultural workers’ rights, and who collected testimonies during the first two days of the pre-selection tests, scheduled in Rome from January 8 to 20, 2020.

209,729 applications had arrived for the 1,052 positions put up for bid by MiBACT: however, the professionals denounce that the convocations arrived only twenty days before the tests, all with some choices judged nefarious by the activists of the collective. “In these first two days of selection, many more than half of those registered did not show up,” explains Daniela Pietrangelo of Mi Riconosci. “Is it fair that people can’t get in to work at the Ministry not because they don’t pass a test, but because the organizational machine discriminates against those who live far from Rome, or can’t take vacations, or can’t afford travel and lodging? We know very well how widespread this is in public competitions, but today, in 2020, with the technologies available, how can this be acceptable?”

“There were some problems yesterday,” says Emanuela Tarsi, a restorer from Ancona who took the pre-selection test yesterday. “Waiting for hours in the cold and standing, the number of shuttles from the station largely insufficient, little checking of cell phones and ID cards, but all in all it was acceptable. But it was acceptable because nearly two-thirds of those registered did not show up: what would have happened if all 20,000 of the expected people had arrived in Rome? The organization would have collapsed. I took a bus to be there, leaving at 3 a.m. I arrived in really bad conditions. Many people did not have that chance and defected. We want to hope that the whole thing was not organized in such a way as to deliberately bring down the turnout: every registered person paid a fee, and many paid it unnecessarily given the poor organization.”

Mi Riconosci activists are asking the minister to urgently take a stand on what is happening, to demand adequate explanations from Formez-Ripam (the organizers of the competition) to make sure that the organization of the next competitions changes drastically, and to refund the registration fee to all those who could not take the test (in fact, each candidate had to pay a fee of 10 euros). The association, meanwhile, lets it know that it will collect testimonies until the end of the pre-selection tests on Monday, January 20.

In the photo, the moment of the candidates’ arrival at one of the pre-selection tests.

MiBACT competition, participants' complaint: thousands of us gave up because of bad organization

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