The Royal Government has the honor to inform Ministers and Secretaries of State that, in accordance with the law on the Common Statute of Civil Servants, the recruitment of civil servants shall be undertaken by way of competitive examinations. Ministries and Institutions are thus invited to conform to following regulations:

Each Ministry, each institution needing to recruit civil servants shall address a proposal to the Secretariat of State of the Civil Service that shall address with the Ministry of the Economy and Finance the financial aspect of the question and shall include this proposal in the draft of the annual budget submitted for adoption by the Council of Ministers and the National Assembly. This is only after the adoption by the National Assembly of each draft recruitment where interested institutions may be able to undertake the recruitment of civil servants by way of competitive examinations in accordance with laws and regulations in force.

In a particular case of need of outside personnel of the annual budget mentioned above, Ministries and institutions shall submit a proposal to the Secretary of State of the Civil Service which shall examine it and shall discuss it with the Ministry of the Economy and Finance with a view to submit it to the Council of Ministers. In case of a positive reply, the institution concerned may proceed to recruit civil servants by way of competitive examinations, but this operation shall have to be inserted in the annual budget reconciliation.

On the other hand, the Royal Government has observed that, in the past, a certain number of institutions having a professional and technical training school have recruited students each year by way of competitive examinations with a view to train them for a ministry specialty. However, at the end of such studies, a problem arises concerning jobs within the ministry for such students.

For the moment and in order to proceed with the work of developing of State human resources responding to the objectives of the public administration reform concerning recruitment and training, the government takes the following measures:

The elaboration of a plan for professional technical training shall be balanced and in accordance with the needs the State civil servants; thus, any ministry or institution organizing courses for professional technical training shall preliminarily be in agreement with the Secretariat of State of the Civil Service concerning the number and the objective of the training in order to examine, evaluate and submit this question for the approval of the Council of Ministers.

All ministries and institutions concerned shall strictly enforce the provisions of this Circular from its reception.

The First Prime Minister

Norodom Ranariddh

The Second Prime Minister

Hun Sen