German cyber chief sacked over Russia link

Germany’s Minister of the Interior has sacked the country’s cyber-security chief after allegations he had turned a blind eye to a firm with links to Russian security circles.

President of the German Federal Office for Information Security, Arne Schönbohm was released from his duties with immediate effect, news magazine Der Spiegel reported, citing security sources.

Spokesperson for the Minister, Nancy Faeser confirmed that Mr Schönbohm (pictured) would be barred from his office, as “necessary public trust in the neutrality and impartiality of his leadership as president of the most important German cyber-security Agency has been damaged”.

Mr Schönbohm, who has since 2016 been in charge of the Agencies overseeing the Government’s computer and communication security, had come under scrutiny after his links to a Russian company in a previous job were highlighted by Jan Böhmermann, a German comedian, in a late-night satire show.

Before heading up the Government’s cyber-security Agency, Mr Schönbohm had helped found the similarly named Cyber Security Council Germany, a lobbying group registered as a voluntary association.

 Among its members, the Cyber Security Council Germany has since 2020 listed a Berlin-based cyber-security firm, Protelion, previously known as Infotecs, a subsidiary of a Russian company founded by an ex-KGB employee who has received a medal of honour for his services from Russian President, Vladimir Putin.

“The Russian company, Infotecs that wants to protect our critical infrastructure from Russian cyber-attacks works with Russian intelligence services,” Mr Böhmermann said in his program, expressing incredulity.

“Russian agents use Infotecs, which under the name Protelion sells German companies security software.”

While the program did not allege that Mr Schönbohm had continued to keep close ties with Protelion after becoming the Government’s security chief, the revelation raised questions about a key official’s judgment at a time when concerns about the vulnerability of Germany’s critical infrastructure is running high.

After Mr Böhmermann’s program, the Cyber Security Council Germany expelled Protelion from its list of members, but rejected allegations of undue Russian influence as “absurd”.

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News

South Korean bid to halt school standards slump

South Korea’s Ministry of Education says it is to resume national evaluation of school students in an effort to reverse declining scholastic standards.

State-led academic evaluation on all students was dropped in 2017 amid claims there was too much emphasis on academic scores. However, with an increasing number of students failing to achieve the minimum level of academic attainment, the Ministry has revived the evaluation system.

It will run an "autonomous evaluation of scholastic attainments" which will be a computer-based test.

Sixth graders at elementary schools, third graders at middle schools and second graders at high schools will be subject to the test this year, expanded out to fifth graders at elementary schools and first graders at high schools next year and to all students except for first and second graders at elementary schools by 2024.

The Ministry will also run a separate system to evaluate whether students have reached a minimum level of academic achievement.

All schools have to use one of the two evaluation tools and select students that need help on studying at least two months after the new school year begins.

Shortly before the Ministry's announcement, President Yoon Suk-yeol said the Government would work on providing a “safety net of academic attainment”.

"If we neglect the education of children because of concerns about the criticism of lining the children up by their scores, Korea will have a grim future,” Mr Yoon said.

“Last year, the evaluation of scholastic attainments by high schools showed that the number of students who did not meet the level of basic academic skills for mathematics and English increased by 40 per cent compared to 2017.”

He said by reviving the national evaluation of scholastic attainments with all schools participating, an education model targeted at individual needs would emerge.

More Public Service New at World PS News | PS News

Canadian officers shun cultural awareness training

Canadian Federal Public Servants appear indifferent to a variety of Indigenous cultural awareness and sensitivity programs offered through the Canada School of Public Service (CSPS), with the highest Department attendance being just 16 per cent.

 The CSPS offers 15 different training sessions on Indigenous issues, known as the Indigenous Training Series, but less than a fifth of Public Servants have attended any one session, according to the numbers from the CSPS.

 The most-attended session, called Reflecting on Cultural Bias: Indigenous Perspectives, has seen 51,430 Public Servants participate as of June this year.

 Other sessions, including Taking Steps Towards Indigenous Reconciliation, saw participation rates lower than one per cent.

 While employees in Indigenous Services Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada are required to complete 15 hours of culturally-competent learning each year, there is no Government-wide directive for mandatory training on Indigenous topics.

 A former Federal employee and a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit alleging systemic discrimination in the Federal Public Service, Letitia Wells said the low participation rates were disappointing, but not surprising.

 "Confronting racism when you are part of an organisation that has that very racism embedded as part of its culture is painful," Ms Wells said.

 A statement from President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier said the CSPS provided a number of training resources on Indigenous topics, but Departments were responsible for determining what was made mandatory.

 Meanwhile, a recent survey has found Federal workers are increasingly cynical, sceptical and disillusioned about the idea of reporting wrongdoing in the Public Service.

Research firm Phoenix Strategic Perspectives Inc. found that pessimism was more “palpable and widespread” now than it was before the pandemic, and bureaucrats have become more likely to fear reprisals for whistle-blowing.

The report was delivered to the Office of the Public Sector Integrity Commissioner, which investigates serious abuses within the Federal Government.

The Commissioner, Joe Friday, said there was a maze of oversight mechanisms available to Public Servants and it could be discouraging or exhausting to figure out where to lodge a complaint.

“Public Servants are feeling more isolated and disconnected during the pandemic, making it more difficult to feel confident in coming forward, let alone to gather the sort of documentation that whistle-blowers need,” Mr Friday (pictured) said.

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News

 

*********

Black Canadian officers take complaint to UN

Black Canadian Public Servants have filed a complaint with the United Nations, alleging their civil rights have been violated.

The complaint by the Black Class Action Secretariat has been sent to the UN Commission for Human Rights Special Rapporteur on racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.

It follows a class action lawsuit the same group filed against the Canadian Government accusing it of systemic racism, discrimination and employee exclusion.

Executive Director of the Secretariat, Nicholas Marcus Thompson said the complaint “details systemic and anti-Black racism in hiring and promotions within Canada's Federal Public Service".

"With this complaint, we are elevating Canada's past failures and failure to act in the present to an international body," Mr Thompson (pictured) said.

He said he hoped the UN Special Rapporteur would investigate the complaint and call on Canada to meet its international obligations to Black employees.

“We want a plan to be established to increase opportunities for Black women in the Government and develop specific targets for hiring and promoting Black workers,” Mr Thompson said.

Amnesty International has thrown its weight behind the complaint, noting that 70 per cent of the 1,500 employees who had joined the class action were Black women.

Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, Ketty Nivyabandi called on the Government to establish a designated category under the Employment Equity Act for Black employees. The Government has launched a task force to review this legislation.

President of the Treasury Board, Mona Fortier agreed that far too many Black Canadians still faced discrimination and hate.

"The Government is actively working to address harm and to create a diverse and inclusive Public Service free from harassment and discrimination,” Ms Fortier said.

“We have passed legislation, created support and development programs, and published disaggregated data, but we know there is still more to do."

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News

Report highlights aging Greek bureaucrats

Greece ranks third in member countries of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) for the percentage of its Public Servants aged more than 55 years, a new report from the OECD has found.

More specifically, while the average for the OECD countries is 26 per cent, in Greece that percentage is 37 per cent.

With 48 per cent, Italy has the highest percentage of middle-aged Public Servants, followed by Spain with 46 per cent.

In Greece, the implementation of restrictive measures on new recruitment in the public sector during the decade of the country’s financial crisis certainly played a role as new blood was not allowed to enter.

However, a public administration official says the biggest problem is not age but mentality.

“When I told an employee many years ago I wanted to show him how to make computerised receipts and stop writing them by hand, he replied: ‘What do I need these for? In 20 years I will retire’,” the unnamed official said.

According to the OECD, countries with older bureaucrats are more likely to experience difficulties in enacting necessary policies.

Experts note that Public Services must be able to cope with the challenge of digital transformation on the one hand, but also with the new demands of citizens in their relationship with the State on the other.

“As the entire population of the European Union, and Greece in particular, is aging, it will need more and more help and support,” the OECD report states.  

“Public officials will also need to develop the ability to help and interact effectively with citizens. In particular, an increasing number of necessary documents can now be searched for digitally, which requires different processing times.”

The report said that the familiar phrase of Public Servants: “We need another document” will no longer be used as an alibi for delay.

More Public Service News at World PS News | PS News