Being a government bureaucrat may not seem like an exciting job prospect in some countries, but in Indonesia, becoming a civil servant (PNS) is one of the most desirable career paths in the country. The reasons for that are numerous — prestige, privileges, incredible job security (even if you barely do your job), etc — and the effect is that competition to become a PNS is fierce.
So fierce, in fact, that many will attempt to cheat the system in order to land a plum government gig, with some even hiring somebody else to take the notoriously difficult PNS entrance exam for them.
Police in the South Sulawesi city of Makassar announced yesterday that they had arrested six members of a PNS test “jockey” (as the local media refers to the test-takers-for-hire) syndicate, including four jockeys who had graduated from some of Indonesia’s top universities.
Makassar Police Chief Irwan Anwar said they were still pursuing nine more people involved in the scheme, including suspected intermediaries and brokers for the jockeys’ services.
The jockeys who were arrested were secured by authorities at the testing site for the PNS entrance exam for position with the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, which was held on Sunday. The mercenary test-takers were discovered when officials checked their photo IDs against those of the people who had registered for the test.
“This is a national syndicate, because these jockeys were brought in from Jogja, Jakarta and East Java. They are graduates from well-known state universities in Indonesia and have each worked for one to two years,” said Irwan as quoted by Detik.
Authorities admitted there are currently no regulations specifying punishments for the use of jockeys by prospective PNS. But Mohammad Ridwan, head spokesperson for the State Personnel Agency (BKN), said that they would almost certainly be blacklisted from applying to any PNS positions in the future, in addition to whatever criminal charges they may face.
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