A total of 34,820 job applicants will for the next 10 days starting today sit for aptitude tests in scramble to fill 218 jobs advertised by the government. 

The chairperson of the Public Service Commission, Ms Winnie Agnes Kabogoza-Musoke, said there will be nine shifts sitting every day, with the last day having six shifts. 

“This year, the number of applicants for the vacancies available is overwhelmingly high. A total of 34,820 applications were received out of which 21,800 candidates have been shortlisted for the 218 vacancies,” Ms Kabogoza said.

She was speaking to journalists on Friday ahead of today’s aptitude tests that will run up to May 25 at Makerere University College of Computing and Information Sciences.

Going forward, Ms Kabogoza said at the end of each aptitude session, each candidate will be able to know what they have scored, a move, she said, is an improvement from the past manually conducted aptitudes, to avoid corruption. Ms Kabogoza said the overwhelming number of applicants this time around makes them vulnerable to fraudsters.

She added that for the very fast time in their recruitment history, they have hit the 10,000 mark of the number of applicants interested in the available government slots, an indication of high unemployment rates among the university graduates.

“This definitely puts many candidates in a desperate position, which can make them fall prey to fraudsters. In the past, we have experienced attempted malpractice from some candidates, masquerades attempting to offer help to candidates in exchange for pay, candidates attempting to bribe staff and staff attempting to solicit money from candidates,” she added. 

However, Ms Kabogoza warned that those found in engaging examination malpractice face disciplinary action, including prosecution.

Every year, the commission conducts a graduate recruitment exercise where by fresh graduates from universities are given a chance to compete and join public service depending on the number of vacancies declared.

The graduate recruitment exercise starts with the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) declaring vacant positions at the graduate entry level to the commission and this coming year, 218 positions were declared.

Ms Kabogoza said majority (100) of the jobs will go to state attorneys.

She further said that those who will have successfully gone through the aptitude tests will be invited for oral exams slated for June 5.

She said those would have finally made it through the recruitment exercise, will start work in the new Financial Year 2023/24 that starts on July 1. By Anthony Wesaka, Daily Monitor