About 500 opponents are applying this Saturday for 218 municipal secretary and auditor positions in the first decentralized test run by the General State to fill local civil servant positions with state authorization, waiting for Catalonia to undertake the final transfer process. This is the first call for positions of civil servants with government qualifications and whose management the General Government participates: of the 1,000 positions activated throughout Spain, in Catalonia there are 218, of which 22 are secretaries, 67 are treasurers and 129 are comptroller-secretaries.
As reported by Generalitat, although 956 candidates initially chose to take the first opposition test, held at the Ciutadella campus of the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, the first provisional data indicate a participation of 50%, a common figure in this type of procedure, since many candidates sign up for more than one test.
Presidential Minister Albert Dalmau stressed, in statements to reporters, that these oppositions are “much needed and much anticipated for a long time.” He pointed out that we aspire to be able to completely close the door to transferring specializations during the year 2026, but we cannot stand idly by, and therefore we have achieved these 218 very important positions to take a first step in covering these positions of secretaries and auditors.
Once the first test is conducted, the second will be conducted in February and the third during the spring semester. Then, approved applicants will also have to pass a specific course with regional themes that will be held next summer at the School of Public Administration of Catalonia, to join the city councils at the end of 2026.
The integration of these 218 municipal secretaries and auditors would help “gradually” alleviate the current “shortage” of this type of key officials in local administration, according to the General Mandate.
Dalmau highlighted that, besides holding these decentralized fairs, they were also able to hold a selective course at the School of Public Administration of Catalonia, with the aim of training applicants according to the standards of this community and helping them to be “facilitators” of the work of mayors.
Last January, the State-State Bilateral Commission agreed that after these decentralized examinations, the State would definitively assume all tasks and powers in this area, so that the Government could promote public offers of positions to qualified State civil servants, as well as selection, training, recruitment and appointment, including calling exclusively in Catalonia for processes to fill vacancies.