Mibac new recruits write to Bonisoli to protest internal ministry redevelopment

We receive and publish from the Comitato Nuove Leve Mibac, which brings together some of the winners of the 2008 and 2016 competitions at the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, an open letter to Minister Alberto Bonisoli expressing dissent against an internal retraining procedure at the ministry that, the signatories point out, could allow internal staff to become ministerial officials even though they do not meet the requirements for access from outside. Below is the full text.

Dear Minister,

Would you let a surgeon who has only a bachelor’s degree (perhaps generic) and has been a nurse for 6 years or worked at the hospital info point for 10 years operate on you? We don’t, we would prefer a real surgeon who has the specialty and has won a competition, but Mibac is risking such a paradox.

The last competition that began in 2016 has just closed, a very difficult and complex competition (as equally complex had been the 2008 competition), in which many Ministry employees also participated, passing it, in compliance with the Brunetta law that had made internal retraining illegitimate, providing as the only access the public competition with reservation of places for internal staff, which in this case was not even applied.

The competition has selected more than a thousand officials all with postgraduate degrees (sometimes even more than one), the recruitment of successful candidates is still ongoing, we have not yet had guarantees that the rankings will be completely exhausted, and we already have to witness the attempt to relentlessly lower the requirements for access from theinternally to the same technical profiles of the Ministry, with area transitions, where the draft notice presented a few days ago at the National Bargaining table would create an equivalence between doctorate/specialization/master with “a seniority of 6 years carried out in duties related to the profile for which one is competing, or a seniority of 10 years of service in Mibac ”(1 ). To say nothing of the promotion and communication profile, to which it would even be possible to enter with only a bachelor’s degree, and the restorers profile, for which membership of the qualifying lists is not required.

And all of this, according to our knowledge, in a framework of illegitimacy, since Legislative Decree No. 75 of May 25, 2017 (so-called Madia Reform), making amendments and additions to Legislative Decree No. 30 March 2001, no. 165, restores, only for the three-year period 2018 - 2020 as a temporary exception to Brunetta, internal selective procedures, providing, however, that the qualifications for access to these procedures remain the same as those provided for access from outside (2).

Now, from the declaratory list of Mibac profiles, approved by Aran 2010 and the lex specialis (3) of the last competition, as well as from the opinion on equivalences requested by Mibac to Miur (4) we learn that the titles to become officials archaeologists, historians of theart, architects, archivists , librarians, anthropologists and demoethnoanthropologists are a master’s degree in subjects related to the profile, professional qualification (for architects only), as well as one of the following postgraduate degrees :

• Ph.D. in subjects related to the profile for which one is competing.
• Two-year or three-year specialization in subjects relevant to the profile for which one is competing.
• Two-year second-level master’s degree in subjects relevant to the profile for which one is competing.

In the absence of these requirements, in the aforementioned competitions (2008 and 2016), one could not even proceed to submit the online application, except for conditional admission ordered by the competent judicial body, which then, in court, resulted in numerous exclusions for lack of access qualifications (5).

We would also add that although the Madia reform restored unexpected predictions of career advancement from within, it also delineated precise boundaries, providing for tests “aimed at ascertaining the ability of candidates to use and apply theoretical notions in solving specific problems and concrete cases” (6). To meet this legislative provision, the draft agreement, which we challenged, proposed a quiz with twenty multiple-choice questions, compared with the tests in the 2016 competition, which instead consisted of:

• a pre-selection test (with a database of 4500 questions) consisting of an 80-question task in 40 minutes.
• a first written test consisting of a paper (theme) relevant to the subject of the profile and short-answer questions in law and English.
• a second written test of a technical-legal nature, concerning the drafting of an administrative act, with commentary and normative references.

On the oral test we have little to say, given the vagueness of its wording in the draft agreement, while much would have to be said about the evaluation of qualifications, where a generic “advanced course”(7) would be worth almost as much as a doctorate. We hope that all this is just a bad joke, and that the internal progressions envisaged by the Madia law can be carried out according to high-level criteria, with an external examining board and providing for the same qualifications required externally.

Dear Minister Please be vigilant about what is happening, because we care about the future of this Ministry. Therefore, we beg you not to allow such important skills, which guarantee the possession of a relevant academic - training profile, to be significantly weakened, with foreseeable repercussions on the quality of work, especially in view of the fact that Mibac is the only ministry called upon to apply technical discretion, and for this reason it cannot in any way disregard the high specialization of its officials (8).

And it is barely worth noting that it would also create embarrassing practical problems. How could an architect perform all his duties, including directing a construction site, without a professional license? How could a non-specialized archaeologist giu dicate the results of preventive archaeology, which, by law, must be prepared by a professional with graduate school?

Therefore, we rely on you, on the value you place on training, to ensure the fairness and impartiality of the selections, hoping that we can proceed with the exhaustion of the lists of successful candidates, so as not to take away places from those who have already successfully completed a competition, without obtaining discounts and in deference to the provisions of our reference legislation.

(1) Hypothetical agreement concerning progressions between areas for the three-year period 2018 - 2020 , July 2017, p. 3.

(2) Art. 22, paragraph 15 of Legislative Decree No. 75 of May 25, 2017, in fact states, “For the three-year period 2018 - 2020, public administrations, in order to enhance internal professionalism, may activate, within the limits of the current hiring powers, selective procedures for progression between areas reserved for tenured staff, without prejudice to the possession of the qualifications required for access from outside.”

(3) Decree April 15, 2016 bearing the “Discipline of the public selection procedure for the recruitment of 500 officials, pursuant to Article 1, paragraph 328 et seq. of Law No. 208 of December 28, 2015.” (OJ General Series No.96 of 26 - 04 - 2016) .

(4) Ministry of Education, University and Research , Opinion on degree classes and equivalences for the purposes of the public selection for the recruitment of 500 officials at MiBACT , meeting of the National University Council on May 4, 20 16.

(5) Judgments Tar No. 06227/2018 and No. 06221/2018.

(6) Article 22, paragraph 15 of Legislative Decree No. 75 of May 25, 2017.

(7) Hypothetical agreement concerning progressions between areas for the three-year period 2018 - 2020 , July 2017, under the table entitled ’Professional and educational qualifications’, p. 6.

(8) See: Giuseppe Severini, Protection of cultural heritage, technical discretion and the principle of proportionality , in Aedon. Rivista di Arti e Diritto online (four-monthly journal edited by Marco Cammelli ) , 3, 2016, pp. 1 - 7.

Mibac new recruits write to Bonisoli to protest internal ministry redevelopment

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