Day-wage Contracts in the Public Sector: When Exceptions Become the Rule

The cloak for circumventing laws and governing regulations!

Building an efficient public administration does not begin with numerous appointments; it begins with adherence to the law, respect for the principle of merit, and consolidation of equality among citizens in access to public employment. These are the fundamental pillars of good governance, protection of public funds, and strengthening citizens’ trust in state institutions.

The problem is not the number of employees who have been appointed, nor the names of the ministries or institutions, but the more important question: have exceptions become the rule in government hiring? The State Audit and Administrative Control Bureau (SAACB) annual report for 2025, published on 8-7-2026, regarding appointments under the contracts and day-wage item in the institutions of the State of Palestine (2020–2023) and based on a compliance audit that covered (14) ministries and government bodies, revealed material imbalances in the system of appointments under the contracts and day-wage item, showing that this mechanism is no longer used to cover temporary or seasonal needs as the legislator intended, but in many cases has become a parallel path to permanent employment, outside the legal and procedural controls that govern the filling of public positions.

The audit work included reviewing procedures for appointments under the contracts item, day-wage contracts, experts, project contracts, service extensions, in addition to the regularization of some employees during the period (2020–2023).

Data from the Ministry of Finance showed the existence of 17,657 employment contracts during the audited period, distributed as follows:

• 10,550 day-wage contracts (59%)
• 6,949 contracts through the Civil Service Bureau (39.35%)
• 158 project contracts (0.9%)

These figures indicate that appointment under the day-wage item has become the largest proportion of government appointments, despite the absence of a comprehensive legal framework governing this type of employment.

Second:

Among the most prominent control imbalances, the Bureau concluded that many ministries and authorities did not comply with the laws and regulations governing public employment, with a set of practices emerging that represent a circumvention of the prevailing legislation, the most prominent of which are:

• The absence of a law or special regulation governing appointment under the day-wage item, which created a wide legislative vacuum that was used to expand this type of employment without clear controls.
• The continued employment of employees under temporary contracts for many years, which deprives these contracts of their temporary nature and effectively turns them into a means of permanent appointment outside legal procedures.
• Appointing employees under contracts to occupy permanent positions that are already listed on the staffing tables, contrary to the Civil Service Law and its executive regulations.
• Many institutions’ failure to comply with staffing tables whether regarding the number of approved positions, job titles, or places of appointment.
• Wide reliance on exemptions issued by the Council of Ministers in appointment and regularization processes, which limited the application of the normal competitive procedures for recruitment.
• Making direct appointments under the day-wage item without external advertisement of the positions, merely relying on internal notices or direct appointments, which limited competition and violated the principle of equal opportunity guaranteed by the constitution.
• Confirming a number of daily-wage employees in permanent positions without opening open public competition, even though the positions have by their nature become permanent positions that should be available to all citizens in accordance with the principle of equality in holding public office.
• There is a discrepancy between the Ministry of Finance’s data and the actual reality of the appointments, where it was shown that there are employees on the day-wage item who are funded from the budgets of some institutions without appearing in the Ministry of Finance’s databases, which weakens the efficiency of oversight over public employment.
• The actual number of appointments exceeds the numbers approved in the staffing tables in a number of government institutions.
• Direct appointment of experts was made without advertisement, competition, or interview committees, with some of them not fulfilling the experience requirements stipulated in Expert System No. (10) of 2021.
• Contracts were concluded to perform tasks that are originally permanent positions listed within the organizational structures of ministries, which conflicts with the purpose for which expert and temporary work contracts were established.
• Some appointments were executed despite decisions to halt appointments issued during the financial crisis, which raises questions about the extent of compliance with financial and administrative governing decisions.

-        In terms of control indications, the audit results reveal that the problem is not limited to sporadic procedural violations, but reflects an institutional malfunction in the management of government human resources, manifested in the expanded use of temporary contracts to fill permanent needs, leading to the circumvention of a recruitment system based on open advertisement, competition and merit., Moreover, the continuation of this reality undermines the principles of transparency and accountability, affects fairness in access to public employment, and limits the ability of oversight bodies to track and exercise control over public expenditure and human resource management.

-        The Bureau’s recommendations focused on the necessity of readjusting the temporary employment system through:

• Issuing a clear legal framework regulating appointment under the day-wage item.
• Obligating all institutions to comply with staffing tables.
• Restricting and consolidating all day-wage appointments within a unified database supervised by the Ministry of Finance and the Civil Service Bureau.
• Ensuring public advertisement of all vacancies and opening competition to citizens to achieve the principle of equal opportunity.
• Organizing the appointment of experts according to clear professional standards, and full compliance with experience and competency requirements.
• Aligning functional needs with actual needs studies, and not using temporary contracts as an alternative to permanent employment.
• Addressing discrepancies between financial data and the actual reality of appointments, and strengthening oversight over the various forms of government employment.

·        In truth, the report reveals that the expansion in the use of day-wage contracts and temporary contracts in recent years has, in many cases, exceeded the purpose for which these contracts were established and has become a parallel mechanism for public employment outside the usual controls. The Bureau’s findings confirm that addressing these imbalances does not stop at correcting individual violations, but requires comprehensive legislative and administrative reform that reorganizes government hiring on the bases of legality, transparency, equal opportunity and actual need, thereby enhancing the efficiency of public administration and preserving citizens’ trust in state institutions.!