A competition to promote candidates into the officer ranks of An Garda Síochána was beset with problems, prompting a row within the force, it has emerged.
Some of the serving Garda members who applied for promotions claim their efforts to pass an online assessment and secure an interview for promotion were hampered on the day.
They are also angry that some of their rivals for promotion re-sat the test for a second time two days later, which they believe afforded an advantage to those candidates, especially as the questions were the same and the format of the assessment was new this year.
The IT system also crashed for some candidates, resulting in time lost as they resolved the matter.
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The competition was run by PublicJobs, formerly the Public Appointments Service, on behalf of Garda Headquarters.
Initially it was intended that the competition would fill 21 superintendents’ posts, though this has been increased to up to 50 posts.
In reply to queries, the Garda said the “promotion competition is being operated by PublicJobs so they are best positioned to comment”.
It added because the competition was “still live” it could not comment further. PublicJobs said it does “not comment on live recruitment campaigns”.
The Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), which represents the Garda inspectors applying for the promotions, confirmed it was made aware of the problems and it believed any of the candidates who experienced problems could have re-sat the assessment.
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It “brought the matter” to the executive director of human resources and people development in the Garda. This resulted in the Garda’s executive director, Yvonne Cooke, consulting with PublicJobs, which confirmed it “stands over the integrity” of the competition.
AGSI added that PublicJobs said it believed “no unfairness arose and no candidate was disadvantaged”.
Some sources said the fact only some candidates sat the same assessment twice, whatever the circumstances, was unfair.
The competition involved Garda inspectors applying for promotion to superintendent rank, with the process also open to members of the PSNI. An assessment phase of the competition took place over two days at the end of June and involved the candidates logging in remotely online.
They were asked to complete three tasks, including a form outlining their policing and academic experience and how it aligned with the position of superintendent. There was also a situational judgment test based on multiple examples of live policing scenarios. The third element was a strategy-based written assessment.
Candidates were told they could not begin the two-hour process until a proctoring process was complete. This involved each candidate using the camera on their laptop to sweep the room they were in to prove nobody else was present to assist them and that they had no documents to consult.
However, the proctoring process did not occur for multiple candidates, apparently due to an IT issue.
This, sources said, resulted in some candidates waiting for an extended period to be told to begin, which then never happened. Eventually they opted to start their assessment after having lost time.
