The Personnel and Administrative Reforms Department has raised serious concerns over the widespread practice of unauthorised appointments in Kerala’s government departments and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), urging the state to crack down on backdoor hiring that bypasses the official Employment Exchange system.
The department has recommended a full-scale audit of all temporary staff across state bodies. This includes gathering detailed records about how these appointments were made. Any hiring found to have taken place without proper authorization or outside the Employment Exchange mechanism should be cancelled, and future hiring should strictly follow the prescribed route through Employment Exchanges.
This move is seen as a response to rising public frustration, especially with nearly 25 lakh job seekers still registered in the state’s Employment Exchanges, many of whom are being overlooked for contract or temporary roles. A departmental review revealed that several institutions failed to notify the Employment Exchanges about available vacancies. In the fiscal year 2022–23, only a single position (for a health inspector) was reported—none from panchayats or educational departments.
During the current LDF government’s second term (May 2021 to May 2024), only 323 hires were made through Exchanges in the General Education Department, despite thousands of vacancies. Likewise, in over 1,200 local bodies with more than 10,000 job openings, only 2,783 appointments were made via official channels.
To curb such practices, the department also proposed monthly online vacancy reporting via a dedicated platform for all government bodies, transforming Employment Exchanges into advisory centres that support startups and job seekers, and establishing a secure data server at the Directorate of Employment to address privacy concerns tied to the existing setup at Technopark.
