Job Seekers Finale

Recently in Al-Wasat Newspaper (Friday 3/8/2007) published an article of hundreds of job applications being dumped in a dumpster in A'ali.

Apart from the various explanations provided by the Ministry Officials, basically clarifying that these applicants have already been entered into their systems electronically, etc.. In my view if such is the case, then as all government ministries are annually audited by the big names in town, such as Ernest & Young, KPMG; Then obviously there are ways that information is supposably destroyed.

From my working experience on various projects with the BMA, and Government Institutions; all information that is deemed of a confidential nature and which is no longer needed can be destroyed. However, there are various guidelines which must be followed on an international level such as:

1. The information must be stored for a set time, such as six months.
2. When destroying, paperwork should be shreeded or burnt; in the presence of an official where a sign-off is necessary.
3. A log-sheet of what was destroyed should be kept on file for future references.

In light of the above, the question remains... How did these applications end up in a dumpster? Who is responsible? and last but not least.... What will be done or What procedures are in place to ensure that such an incident is not repeated?

I think the Ministry owes all the job seekers an apology, and has to provide some form of convincing evidence that the evidence in the dumpster is nothing but documentation which was required to be destroyed.

On the other hand... I believe the feelings of the unfortunate job seekers has been hurt...

I guess that's the way it is.

5/8/2007 Capt. Arab