The scandal surrounding a civil service exam has painted a grim picture of Turkey’s bureaucratic corruption.
By Pinar Tremblay,
August 24, 2022
The recent cancellation of a standardized exam betrayed the extent of institutional failure and tampering in Turkey directly affecting the lives of more than a million people.
The news broke after allegations that questions of the Public Personnel Selection Examination (KPSS) were leaked before it was conducted on July 31. The scandal resulted by dismissal of several officials and the cancellation of the test. Turkey’s Center for Assessment, Selection and Placement (OSYM) denied the fraud claims circulating on social media. The growing public outrage prompted Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to weigh in, announcing an investigation into the allegations on Aug 2.
In an unusual move, Erdogan acknowledged the possibility of fraud. “We will never allow even a single child of ours to be wronged,” he tweeted.
A day later the director of the OSYM was dismissed. More than a million examinees are now preparing for the new KPSS exam set for Sept. 17.
Although details remain unclear, the investigation has indicated that some questions included in the exam were previously published in a KPSS prep book and had also been provided to some examinees beforehand.
The KPSS, which is the first step to becoming employed in Turkey’s public service, has been in the center of several controversies over more than 10 years. Dozens of Gulenists were convicted of involvement in KPSS fraud when the movement was influential in the bureaucracy during its de facto alliance with Turkey’s ruling party. After the 2016 coup attempt, Turkey designated the movement led by US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen as a terrorist organization, accusing it of masterminding the uprising that left more than 200 people dead.
In response to questions about the KPPS investigation, Erdogan targeted Gulenists as well as the political opposition, accusing them of trying to drive a wedge between the youth and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
According to Burak Bilgehan Ozpek, a political science professor at TOBB University in Ankara and a political commentator, several factors are at play in the scandal.
“In the past we have seen Gulen movement members providing advantages to their own members in government positions and college placement,” Ozpek told Al-Monitor. “After [the coup], Gulenist members were purged from these institutions but we did not observe a proper reconstruction of these institutions. Priority has evolved as loyalty to Erdogan and partisanship. The OSYM could not be immune to this trend.”
Ozpek also argued that the centralized structure of the OSYM, the institution responsible for all the standardized tests in the country, makes the system “vulnerable to attacks.”
Institutional tampering and favoritism have taken on fresh prominence as the case triggered a widespread outcry in the country. Opposition parties and government critics accuse the government of filling the public service with its cronies.
Indeed, despite having top scores, several KPPS examinees have failed to pass in-person interviews for public employment. Interviews are also said to include political or even ideological questions to eliminate candidates who do not share the ruling party’s worldview.
Although Erdogan had promised that the switch to the presidential system would make Turkey’s bureaucracy more efficient, statistics show the number of public employees has grown by 32% in Turkey since he assumed sweeping executive powers.
The KPSS fraud also betrays the level of corruption in the Turkish bureaucracy, particularly in the standardized tests conducted by the OSYM.
According to Ozpek, the success rates of public imam hatip schools, which offer extensive Islamic studies and have become a dominant element in the education system, in college placement exams also raises questions.
“The success of imam hatip high schools in college replacement tests has become impressively high after 2016. The exam results show students graduating from these high schools are topping the lists. How can this be explained?” Ozpek asked. “These kinds of questions will remain because right now the public perceives the state as a bundle of institutions that serve the AKP ranks.”