Publicjobs apologises to 12,000 job applicants for 'administrative error' that ranked them incorrectly

The competition for clerical officers nationwide involves initial assessments that rank candidates ahead of being invited for further interview. File picture: iStock

Ireland’s public sector recruitment body has issued an apology after over 12,000 applicants to a civil service panel ranked incorrectly in order of merit due to an “administrative error”.

The competition for clerical officers nationwide, run by Publicjobs, involves initial assessments that rank candidates ahead of being invited for further interview.

In the letter sent to candidates, which has been shared online, it said: “Unfortunately, we have discovered an administrative error in relation to the assessment for this competition.

“This error resulted in candidates receiving an incorrect result and an incorrect order-of-merit ranking for their selected location.” 

Publicjobs said in the email that prior to launching the competition, it had updated and introduced new “scenario questions” which formed part of the application form. When candidates completed the test, two of those six questions had not been updated “as intended”.

“[We are] actively working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible,” it said. “Rescoring is underway, and candidates may notice their application status changing within their candidate portal while this rescoring is carried out.

“We understand that this will come as a disappointment for candidates who will receive a lower score/lower placing on the ‘order of merit’ and we apologise sincerely for this. A quality review is being carried out to ensure that an error of this type cannot happen again.” 

It added that an updated result would be available within 24 hours on the online portal for candidates, and that it would be pleased to respond to any queries.

Public service union Fórsa has hit out at the issue and said candidates should not be unduly disadvantaged by a “preventable error”.

“On the face of it, it marks a very poor start for potential clerical officer candidates, and I can fully appreciate their frustration with this development,” its media relations director Niall Shanahan said.

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“It prompts a broader question for me about the quality control applied to the application process. A lot of HR management in all sectors is transitioning into the use of AI for screening applicants, while many of those new to the job market are likely getting some assistance from AI in preparing their applications.

“The error at Publicjobs illustrates what can go wrong in a large-scale digital process, and serves to remind us of the importance of human oversight in any process where much of the work is entrusted to a digital system.” 

According to figures released by minister for public expenditure Jack Chambers, over 50,000 applications have been received across 10 different public sector competitions, which include clerical officer roles.

In a statement, Publicjobs said: “This error resulted in 12,656 candidates receiving an incorrect result and an inaccurate order-of-merit ranking for their chosen location.

“Once the issue was identified, Publicjobs contacted all affected candidates to inform them of the error, explain the steps being taken to correct it, and apologise for the inconvenience caused.

“The issue has now been resolved. All affected candidates are currently being issued with their correct results and updated order-of-merit rankings.”