Total rebellion of senior civil servants in the face of the government’s latest maneuvers to erode their status

At the same time, Fedeca, the platform which brings together around fifty unions and associations representing the higher authorities of the State – the elite of the Administration, which feeds the main high functions of the ministries -; and the organization of State Treasury Inspectors have spoken out against the acceptance by the majority of the investiture bloc of an initiative of the Cantabrian Parliament aimed at open the management scale of the Administration to technical organizations (A2), diluting the current legal reserve which reserves these positions of responsibility for higher organizations (A1), for which greater training and technical qualification is required.

After five years of threats and Government maneuvers to erode its supposedly privileged status In the structure of the State, senior officials of the State Administration, historically reluctant to hold public office, have decided to put their foot on the wall and publicly denounce these latest maneuvers of the Government, which, in their opinion, not only threaten the legal security of the current State model, but also threaten the quality of public services and destroy the constitutional principles of equality, merit and ability to access public office.

What was ratified this Thursday by the inauguration majority in Congress attacks the three aspects of the government’s strategy that senior officials have denounced almost since the start of the government offensive: the fragmentation of the current structure of the state administration to respect the political agreements concluded with the nationalists, the lowering of the bar of demands in the oppositions and internal promotions to facilitate access to the upper echelons of the public service and the erosion of the position of what we calls A1 as the exclusive career for civil service management positions. State Administration.

legal battle

What happens in the case of the transfer of secretaries and auditors to the Generalitat It’s a legal testlike what the Basque Government is experiencing, to which the Sánchez Executive recognized these same powers in 2021 but which continues to this day without being able to exercise them due to doubts in the courts about the constitutionality of this transfer. “We are going to appeal everything that the Generalitat approves by invoking the powers that have been recognized, but that we do not recognize,” warned the president of Cosital on Thursday in a conversation with ABC, convinced of the unconstitutionality of the rupture of the national character of the body of auditors, secretaries and treasurers of the town hall.

A similar future is planned for the initiative of the spokesperson for Apsital, the other representative association of the group, Alberto Bravo, who considers what was approved this Friday as “a the government gives a helping hand» similar to what was done with the transfer to the Basque Country, which was introduced successively in some laws and in others until one of them was adopted, even knowing the doubts of the courts regarding its adequacy within the current legislative framework.

The other source of indignation of senior officials comes from the examination by Congress, based on the majority of the inauguration bloc, of a bill of the Parliament of Cantabria which aspires to modify the classification of professional groups to open the door to technical personnel of the health system such as nursing staff and physiotherapists, framed in group A2, can access “management and management positions”such as for example to sector managers of health centers or research and teaching groups.

Deterioration of management functions

The associations of higher organizations grouped within Fedeca understand, however, that this legal change would de facto elevate the technical organizations supervised in the A2 group to the category of A1 higher organizations. “The proposal aims to transform the demand of a particular group into a general legislative measure which “affects dozens of organs of the general administration of the State”underlines Fedeca in a press release.

“It’s a political shortcut that “Under the pretext of redressing grievances, it boosts civil service careers.”underlines the association of State Treasury inspectors in a harsh press release published this Thursday. “It is a very dangerous precedent to convert technical bodies into superiors through the back door, without taking into account the merit, capacity and necessary excellence of the higher bodies of the State”, degrading “the technical and academic requirements necessary for the exercise of management functions and advanced tax control”, they emphasize.