YEREVAN, JULY 23, NOYAN TAPAN. 570 out of 699 civil servants' vacant posts were taken up through competitions held in the first six months of 2007. 129 announced competitions did not take place, and no one won in 67 competitions. In total, 1970 citizens took part in the competitions. Manvel Badalian, the Chairman of the RA Civil Service Council, said this at the July 20 press conference. In his words, at present the number of civil service posts in Armenia is 7541. In M. Badalian's words, 475 civil servants passed attestation in January-June, 2007. Attestation commissions made decisions on not corresponding to their posts on 11 out of them. And 391 civil servants have been relieved of their posts since 2003 up to present. It was also mentioned that five civil servants were relieved of their posts as a result of five official examinations held by the Civil Service Council in six months of 2007. Since 2003 up to present the Civil Service Council has conducted 215 studies, as a result of which 115 civil servants were dismissed for various violations of law. 1337 civil servants have passed compulsory retraining in the first six months of this year. Touching upon contacts with the respective foreign structures, M. Badalian said that the Civil Service Council, in particular, cooperates with the French Civil Service Ministry. "In this sphere the French experience can be rather instructive for us, especially in the respect of raising the level of civil servants' skills and their retraining," the Chairman of the Civil Service Council said.

---