RULES FOR THE APPLICATION, NOMINATION AND APPOINTMENT OF THE SECRETARIAT OFFICIAL STAFF

I. Introduction

The present Rules describe the basic requirements to the candidates for official staff position in the Permanent Secretariat of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution as well as the criteria and the procedure to be applied in the process of application, nomination, selection and appointment of the candidates. The Rules take into consideration the experience gained and the practices established during the first three years of operation of the Permanent Secretariat. The Rules are to be considered as integral part of the Regulations for the Staff of the Commission. The document also takes into account the deliberations at the Tenth Meeting of the Commission and the established practice in the staff recruitment over the first three years of the operation of the Permanent Secretariat.

II. General Provisions

Any incumbent in the Secretariat:

• must be a citizen of the Black Sea coastal state,
• must satisfy the criteria set forth in the Terms of Reference for the relevant post,
• must not have been convicted of a criminal offense.
• The Executive Director and other officials will be recruited among the nationals of all Black Sea states with equal opportunity. The Commission will appoint the professional staff on the basis of the recommendation of the Black Sea coastal states, presented through the Permanent Secretariat by the respective Contracting Party’s Representative in the Commission and after a selection procedure as described below in this Rules.
• The Executive Director will be appointed for a four years term. Other officials of the Secretariat will be appointed for three years. To ensure the continuity of the work of the Secretariat there may be a one month overlap period between the appointee and his/her successor. In the case of the Executive Director this period may be longer as the Commission may decide.
• In some exceptional circumstances the term of an official staff member might be shorter provided that has been indicated in the Terms of Reference approved by the Commission prior the selection procedure and appointment of the staff member.
• The candidates from the Black Sea coastal countries for the posts in support staff will apply to the Secretariat. Appointments should be made in whole compliance with the Headquarters Agreement Between the Government of the Republic of Turkey and the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution. The applications will be evaluated by the Executive Director. The Executive Director shall inform the Representative of the respective Contracting Party about the selected applicant. Service contracts for support staff will be made for two years and may be renewed for an additional two years. The Executive Director preserves the right to exempt any post from this condition informing the Chairman.

III. Selection Procedure

• As a rule, the selection and appointment of the official staff members should take place at the regular or extraordinary meetings of the Commission as described in Rule 3 of the Rules of Procedure of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution. The request for nominations should be extended by the Executive Director conforming to the provisions Rule 4 of the Rules of Procedure. The functions of a selection committee shall be performed by the Commission itself.
• Nominations for the official staff members made in compliance with Article II, Paragraph 2 shall be discussed at a closed session of the Commission. The applicants shall be interviewed at the closed session of the Commission. Their travel expenses shall not be covered by the Commission Budget.
• In the selection process the Representatives of the Contracting Parties will take into consideration the criteria attached to this document. The selection will be made by voting. The Commission agrees by consensus that in case of selection of official staff members a qualified majority of 2/3 of the votes will be applied.
• Should any post in the Commission Secretariat fall vacant before the end of the mandate or there are other conditions imposing the need of rapid staff recruitment, the Commission may agree to apply a written procedure for the selection and appointment of an official staff member.
• Agreement to apply written procedure shall be reached via correspondence upon a proposal by any of the Representatives of the Contracting Parties or initiated by the Executive Director.
• In case of written procedure the nominations made pursuant to Article II, Paragraph 2 shall be forwarded to the Permanent Secretariat after the applicant has been interviewed by the respective Representative in the Commission. The application must include information note on the results of the interview.
• All applications shall be circulated by to all of the Contracting Parties together, not later than two working days later than the deadline for the application submission.
• The Contracting Parties Representatives will make a ranking of the applicant based on the criteria and score system attached hereto. The ranking shall be submitted to the Permanent Secretariat not later than 30 days after the date of the applications have been forwarded to the Contracting Parties by the Permanent Secretariat.
• The results shall be summarized in the Permanent Secretariat. The Executive Director shall notify the Contracting Parties about the evaluation results not later than seven days after the deadline for submission of the evaluation of the applications by the Contracting Parties Representatives.
• In case that a candidate has reached the highest score among all according 2/3 or more of the Contracting Parties Representatives’ opinion, this person will be considered elected.
• If the most successful candidate has not reached the required level of majority, a second round of selection shall take place. The selection shall be made between the two most successful candidates from the first round. The Representative of the Contracting Parties in the Commission shall communicate their ranking within 14 days after they have been informed by e-mail and/or fax by the Permanent Secretariat about the outcome of the first round. In this period the Representatives should also seek an agreement by consultations between themselves when possible.
• The second round shall be considered successful if one of the applicant will be selected by 2/3 or more of the Representatives.
• If parity of the votes will be reached, the Executive Director shall inform the Contracting Parties immediately after the deadline for submission of the results of the second round. The Contracting Parties Representatives will make an attempt to resolve the problem through consultations between themselves. If within 14 days after being informed about the results of the second round some of the Representatives revise his vote in a way that the majority required will be reached, this should be communicated to the other Representatives via the Permanent Secretariat. After written confirmation of four or more positive votes the Executive Director will be considered as authorized to appoint the successful applicant on behalf of the Commission.
• If the written procedure has been applied, the new officer shall be appointed with six month trial period.
• If an agreement could not be achieved, the Commission may decide to re-open the procedure.

IV. Selection Criteria

• The following criteria should be applied by the Commission when selecting an application for an official staff post in the Permanent Secretariat. Each single criterion will be evaluated within the score range attributed to it. The overall ranking of the applications shall be made based on summing up the criteria estimates.
• If the written procedure is applied, the criteria will be applied during the first round. In this case the criteria set out in subparagraph “a” are to be evaluated by the Representative of the country of origin of the nominee only.

a)

b)