Croatian Justice Minister Ivan Malenica has decided to put an end to hiring for civil service positions "through personal connections" by digitising the hiring process, the Jutarnji List daily reported on Tuesday.

The minister has launched a tender for a centralised selection system for admission to the civil service, and nine bids were received last week.

The purpose of the project is to avoid a repetition of examination questions and prevent candidates who have already participated in examinations and are acquainted with previous questions from having an advantage over other candidates, according to the tender document cited by the daily.

It also aims to prevent the hiring of persons through personal connections or party membership lines.

For this reason, the government has decided to buy a software that will put forward questions randomly and select the best candidates according to predefined criteria. The procurement value is 10.9 million kuna (€1.45 million) excluding VAT.

“The aim of the project is to establish a more objective and transparent hiring system based on actual needs and allocated funding, which will ensure the hiring of the best and most competent candidates, improve the efficiency of public administration and put its focus on user needs,” the tender document says.

The selection process will be carried out centrally by online testing, which will ensure the objectivity and transparency of the candidate selection process, according to Jutarnji List.