Competition Rules. TRACECA ORG

Rules
of conducting a competition for filling vacant positions
of the Permanent Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA

1. The present Rules of conducting a competition for filling vacant positions of the Permanent Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA (hereinafter referred to as the Rules) are developed on the basis of the Statute of the Permanent Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA.

2. The present Rules shall be applied in filling the vacancies of the members of staff of the Permanent Secretariat of the Intergovernmental Commission TRACECA (hereinafter referred to as the Permanent Secretariat) and designed to involve experts meeting the corresponding qualification requirements and having practical experience and skills, and professional achievement.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 03/21/23 of 26 November 2021.

3. Filling vacant positions could be done by:

1) temporary assignment to perform the labor function for a vacant position for a period not exceeding three months;

2) involving a new employee for the temporary performance of duties and labor functions for a vacant position in the absence of the need to permanently fill a vacant position for a period not exceeding six months;

3) attracting freelance (short-term) experts for a period not exceeding three months with a possible double extension for the same period, but not more than nine months in general, taking into account the extension (the rights and obligations of freelance (short-term) experts are determined by the labor contract), if necessary attracting a new employee to perform labor functions not provided for by the current staffing table and job descriptions;

3-1) transfer of the employee/expert of the PS IGC TRACECA with his/her consent to the respective vacant position by concluding an additional agreement to his/her employment contract. In this case, the term of the employment contract shall not be interrupted and the requirements of paragraph 5.3 of the Statute of the PS IGC TRACECA shall continue to apply to him/her;

4) conducting a competition to involve new employees for a period of two years with the subsequent extension of the contract for two years (upon expiration of the contract, the employees of the Permanent Secretariat have the right to participate in competition for filling vacant positions).

Conducting a competition is envisaged only for filling vacancies in accordance to sub-point 4) article3) of the present Rules among the candidates and designed for the involvement of the experts meeting qualification requirements for vacant positions.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 03/21/23 of 26 November 2021.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 03/23/41 of 29 December 2023.

4. The process of filling vacancies through a competition shall be carried out by the Secretary of the Competition Commission (hereinafter - the Secretary), who is determined by the Secretary General from the staff of the Permanent Secretariat. The Secretary, being a permanent member of the Competition Commission, shall organize its work, participate in all its meetings and can be replaced only in the event of a conflict of interest.

5. The process of filling vacancies through a competition consists of the following stages:

1) determining the need for an employee;

2) vacancy announcement;

3) initial selection of applications for compliance with qualification requirements;

4) practical assignment for assessing professional competencies (skills) (the necessity and format of conducting is determined by the Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat, depending on the position (writing an essay, a test assignment, etc.);

5) verification of recommendations (if any);

6) interview;

7) provision by the candidate of a package of documents required for the conclusion of an employment contract;

8) conclusion of an employment contract.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

6. The Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat (hereinafter - the Secretary General), depending on the scope of work and the availability of vacant posts, shall determine the need for recruitment of the staff and the option of filling a vacancy in accordance with Article 3 of these Rules.

7. The Secretary, after agreement with the Secretary General, shall ensure that the announcement of the vacant position of the Permanent Secretariat and the competition is posted on the TRACECA website no later than thirty days prior to the competition and notify the MLA countries indicating qualification requirements, job responsibilities, deadlines for submitting documents and their list, in accordance with article 8 of these Rules.

8. At the stage of the initial selection of applications for compliance with the qualification requirements, the participants of the competition shall provide the following documents by e-mail:

- application in the form, in accordance with Appendix 1 to these Rules,

- CV with photo,

- a copy of an identity document or passport,

- copies of the documents confirming the required professional education, qualifications and work experience,

- motivation letter;

- copies of the documents confirming the improvement or qualification assignment based on the results of additional professional education (optional),

- copies of the documents on awarding an academic degree, academic title (optional).

Documents written in languages other than Russian or English must be submitted with notarized translations.

The participants of the competition can provide additional information about education, expertise, professional level and reputation (characteristics, recommendations, scientific publications, etc.).

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

9. A candidate who does not meet the mandatory qualification requirements for a vacant position shall not be subject to further consideration.

10. Participants in the competition are candidates who have sent the necessary documents to the Permanent Secretariat after the announcement of the competition is published in accordance with the terms specified in the announcement.

11. The following citizens are not allowed to participate in the competition and may be excluded from participation in the competition at any stage that

1) do not meet the established qualification requirements;

2) are recognized as incapable or partially incapable by a court decision that entered into legal force;

3) are deprived of the right to hold public office for a certain period of time by a court decision that entered into force;

4) are recognized as guilty of committing fraud or any other criminal offense by a court decision that has entered into legal force.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

12. The Secretary, on the basis of the documents provided by the competitors within the established timeframe, shall fill out the summary table, the form of which is determined in accordance with Appendix 2 to these Rules.

If the Permanent Secretariat has not received applications for participation in the competition for vacant positions within the prescribed period, or the applications received do not contain a complete package of documents required for their consideration and cannot be reviewed, the deadline for submitting applications may be extended once for no more than 30 days, with the MLA countries being duly notified.

If the Permanent Secretariat still has not received any applications for consideration during the extended deadline for submitting applications for participation in the competition, the Permanent Secretariat may initiate an appeal to the recruitment agency in order to select candidates.

If a recruitment agency is contacted, the Permanent Secretariat does not conduct the stages of the competition provided for in sub-paragraphs 1-5 of paragraph 5 of these Rules. The interview stage is conducted on the basis of information and documents provided by the recruitment agency.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

13. With no later than seven working days after the expiration of the established deadline for receiving/submitting applications, the Secretary General shall decide on the need to convene a meeting of the Competition Commission and form a list of candidates.

14. Candidates who meet the qualification requirements shall, no later than ten working days after the deadline for receiving/submitting applications, be invited to a practical assignment. For the practical assignment, the date and time shall be determined, and the Secretary shall inform the candidates about this no later than the day before the event. On the day of the practical assignment, the Secretary shall send to the selected candidates a link for the practical assignment in real time/online using programs with remote access and editing, fifteen minutes before it begins.

The format of practical assignments is developed by the Head of the relevant Division, taking into account the specifics of a particular vacancy and approved by the Order of the SG in each individual case.

For employees with continuous work experience in the Permanent Secretariat for at least 4 years, if they reapply in competitive procedures for the same position, the stage of practical assessment of professional competencies (skills) may not be conducted. This provision does not apply to applications for other vacant positions other than those previously held.

The decision not to conduct the stage of practical assessment of competencies shall be made by the Secretary General.

This decision shall be made by the Secretary General based on the results of the professional activity of the employee during the period of his/her work in the Permanent Secretariat on a five-point scale, based on professional indicators: the quality of tasks, responsibility, compliance with deadlines set, initiative and contribution to the activities of TRACECA.

14.1. The essay shall be written on one of the five topics that are approved by the Secretary General.

The document, to which access is provided, shall include five essay topics for selection by the candidate and further writing of the essay.

For writing an essay with no more than five hundred words (not including the essay topic), no more than forty minutes shall be given. At the end of the allotted time, access to electronic documents shall be closed, and the work of each participant shall be saved separately.

The Secretary shall, while the essay is being written, monitor the writing process of each candidate. At the same time, when writing an essay, using the functions “copy” and “paste” is not allowed.

14.2. The test assignment shall be conducted either in writing (when conducting a competition for the position of Linguistics Specialist and Administrative Specialist) or in the form of practical tasks (when conducting a competition for the position of IT Specialist). The test task shall take no more than thirty minutes. At the end of the allocated time, access to the test task shall be closed, and the work of each participant shall be saved separately.

During the test assignment, the Secretary shall monitor the writing process of each candidate. At the same time, the use of external sources of information is not allowed during testing.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

15. The Head of Policy Development and Monitoring Division and the Head of International and Internal Affairs Division shall review and evaluate practical assignments by the following applicable criteria:

1) grammatically correct presentation of thought;

2) professional awareness and education;

3) professional practical skills.

For each criterion, a corresponding score is assigned on a five-point scale, where 5 is the highest grade and 1 is the lowest. After the head of experts has assigned the appropriate scores, the practical assignments with the scores shall be submitted to the Secretary to supplement the summary table (the average score shall be calculated according to all assessed criteria).

In the event of a competition to fill the vacant position of Head of Policy Development and Monitoring Division or the Head of International and Internal Affairs Division, the practical assignments shall be reviewed and evaluated by the Secretary General or a person designated by the Secretary General.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

16. The best candidates (no more than 5 people), selected on the basis of practical assignment analysis, after agreement with the Secretary General, shall be invited to an interview with the Competition Commission. The Secretary shall have the right to check the recommendations provided by telephone and/or email prior to the interview.

The Secretary shall send to the candidates admitted to the interview a corresponding notification in writing (in electronic form) about the time and place of the interview by the Competition Commission.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

17. The Secretary General shall form a Competition Commission, empowered to conduct interviews with candidates for the vacant positions in the Permanent Secretariat.

18. The Competition Commission shall conduct interviews with candidates for vacant positions and shall be composed of:

- Secretary General – Chairman of the Competition Commission;

- National Secretary of the depository country of the “Basic Multilateral Agreement on International Transport for Development of the Europe-the Caucasus-Asia Corridor” (hereinafter referred to as the MLA) – member of the Competition Commission;

- Diplomatic envoy of the Chairman country in the Republic of Azerbaijan - member of the Competition Commission (in case that the Republic of Azerbaijan is the Chairman country, the right of participation in the Competition Commission shall be transferred to the country assuming the chairmanship from the Republic of Azerbaijan);

- other diplomatic envoys, invited specialists or staff members of the Permanent Secretariat (as agreed with the Secretary General) – members of the Competition Commission;

- Secretary of the Commission (non-voting).

The composition of the Competition Commission shall be formed after the deadline for submitting the documents by order of the Secretary General.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

19. The Secretary shall facilitate the work of the Competition Commission, and also keep the minutes of the meetings (including using devices for recording speech for the purpose of subsequent listening).

20. The personal composition of the Competition Commission shall be formed in such a way as to exclude the possibility of conflicts of interest that could affect the results of the interview.

21. Members of the Competition Commission shall have the right to familiarize themselves with the CVs of candidates and information about the participants in the competition, which is generated in accordance with article 12 of these Rules.

The Competition Commission shall conduct an interview with a candidate for filling a vacant position in person or in the mode of a web conference, if one of the members of the Competition Commission or candidates cannot take part in the interview in person.

During the interview, a candidate shall be asked from three to five questions related to the competence of the vacant position, and one situational and motivational question - to evaluate the potential professional effectiveness and involvement of the specialist in the work process. Sample situational and motivational questions can be prepared by the Secretary and provided to the members of the Competition Commission no later than one day before the meeting of the Competition Commission.

If necessary, and in order to disclose the answer, members of the Competition Commission may ask clarifying questions that are not evaluated independently and affect the evaluation of the main question.

Each member of the Competition Commission shall fill out an evaluation sheet based on the results of the interview, the form of which shall be determined in accordance with Appendix 3 to these Rules, and submit it to the Secretary.

22. After conducting interviews with all candidates, the members of the Competition Commission shall make a decision on the candidate who, based on the results of the interview, is the most suitable for filling the vacant position.

The decision taken by the Competition Commission shall be drawn up in the form of a protocol, which is signed by the Chairman, members of the Competition Commission and the Secretary. After the end of the meeting, the Secretary shall also draw up a record of the conduct of the meeting, taking into account the discussions, questions and answers.

23. The meeting of the Competition Commission shall be considered legitimate if at least three members of the Competition Commission specified in article 18 of these Rules are present, with the obligatory participation of the Secretary General. If the Secretary General cannot take part in the meeting, then it is postponed.

24. The Secretary shall enter the points assigned by the members of the Competition Committee into the summary table and provide the results of all steps of the filling process for vacant positions to the Secretary General.

25. Based on the points indicated in the summary table and the decision of the Competition Commission, the General Secretary shall decide on the most suitable candidate for the vacant position.

26. If two or more candidates have an equal number of points, the Secretary General shall have the right to conduct a personal interview with the candidates to make a final decision.

27. If, based on the results of the meeting conducted by the Competition Commission, candidates for filling vacant positions are not determined, a new competition shall be announced no later than thirty calendar days from the date of the meeting of the Competition Commission.

28. The Secretary of the Commission shall notify the candidates who have passed the interview stage of the Secretary General's decision no later than three working days from the date of the meeting of the Competition Commission, request from them a package of documents necessary for concluding an employment contract and inform them of the consequences of its failure to provide.

The package of necessary documents includes:

- a document confirming the absence of a criminal record issued by the authorized body of the country of which the candidate is a citizen;

- a document confirming that the candidate is not registered at a neuropsychiatric dispensary (or another similar document confirming his/her full legal capacity in accordance with the legislation of the candidate's country of citizenship);

- a document confirming that the candidate is not registered at a drug treatment dispensary (or another similar document confirming his/her full legal capacity in accordance with the legislation of the candidate's country of citizenship).

Documents written in languages other than Russian or English must be submitted with notarized translations.

If the documents specified in this paragraph are not provided within 10 working days (determined in accordance with the legislation of the headquarters of the Permanent Secretariat), the Secretary General's decision on the results of the competition may be cancelled, and the conclusion of an employment contract may be offered to another candidate who participated in the interview stage. This period may be extended once by the Secretary General for no more than 20 working days (determined in accordance with the legislation of the headquarters of the Permanent Secretariat) based on a reasoned application by the candidate.

The requirements of this paragraph regarding the provision of a package of documents required for the conclusion of an employment contract do not apply to current employees of the Permanent Secretariat when they participate in competitive procedures to fill vacant positions in the Permanent Secretariat.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

29. The Secretary General shall conclude an employment contract with a candidate for a vacant position in accordance with sub-point 4 of article 3 of these Rules.

30. An employment contract may be concluded with the establishment of a probationary period in order to verify the professional level of the employee, his ability to perform the relevant labor functions. The probationary period shall be established with the condition of not more than three months. The employment contract of an employee who has not justified himself during the probationary period may be terminated.

31. Competitors who have not previously passed the probationary period shall not be allowed to re-submit the documents to fill a vacant position.

32. The submission of false information by the candidate shall be the basis for refusal of employment or termination of the employment relationship with the Permanent Secretariat.

33. The Secretary General shall have the right to cancel the competitive procedures at any stage in the event of:

- submission of the documents for only one participant in the competition or if the candidates fail to pass (or only one candidate is determined based on the results of) the stages specified in subparagraphs 4-6 of paragraph 5 of these Rules;

- temporary assignment of the performance of the labour function for a vacant position to an expert/head of experts;

- consecutive failure of all candidates who passed the interview stage to submit the documents required for the conclusion of an employment contract;

- revealing the facts described in Article 32 of these Rules.

This paragraph is reworded in accordance with the Order of the Secretary General No. 04/25/54 of 30 October 2025.

34. The present Rules shall enter into force from the date of signing the Order on their approval by the Secretary General.

Appendix 1

To: Secretary General

of the PS IGC TRACECA

_______________________

From

___________________

Application

I ask you to allow me to participate in the competitions for a vacant position

______________________________________________________

I have read the basic requirements of the Rules for conducting a competition to fill vacancies, agree and undertake to comply with them.

I agree to the collection and processing of my personal data.

I agree with the audio recording of my interview.

I confirm:

- the authenticity of the submitted documents,

- my legal capacity and lack of limited legal capacity by a court decision,

- no deprivation of the right to hold public office in ____________ (country of residence) by a court decision,

- lack of confessions of fraud or any other offense by a court decision.

The documents attached:

______________________________________________________

Address: ___________________________________________________

Contact phone numbers: ______________________________

e-mail: ____________________________________________________

(signature)

(name, surname)

«____» ___________ 20__ .

Appendix 2

Summary Table

of participants of the competition for filling vacant position (title of the position)

Full name/Evaluation parameters	Candidate 1	Candidate 2	Candidate 3	Candidate 4	Candidate 5	Candidate …
Required evaluation parameters
Compliance with qualification requirements *
Writing an essay
Interview
Optional evaluation parameters***
CV with photo
Copy of identity document or passport
Document certifying no criminal record
Copies of the documents confirming the required professional education
Copies of the documents confirming the required qualification and work experience
Copies of the documents confirming the improvement or qualification assignment based on the results of additional professional education
copies of the documents on awarding an academic degree, academic title
Verification of the recommendations
Reference
Scientific publications
Certificates and diplomas on additional education or on graduation of the professional courses
Work experience in public service
Work experience in international institutions/organizations (including at the PS IGC TRACECA)

* evaluated at 1point in case of compliance.

** evaluated in five points scale (point average).

*** not evaluated in points scale taking into account equal number of points of 2 and more candidates. “Yes” is indicated in case of availability, and “No” – in case of absence.

Appendix 3

Evaluation sheets

of candidates on the results of the interview *

Name and surname of the candidate ________________________________

Title of the vacant position ________________________________________ __________________________________________________________________

Date and time of the interview: _________________________

№	Question	Points **	Note
1	Professional
2	Professional
3	Professional
4	Professional
5	Professional
6	Situational
7	Motivational
	Point average:

* making amendments, painting over, puttying, using concealer or other ways to correct mistakes are not allowed

** assessed in five-point scale, where 5 is the highest point, and 1 is the lowest.

Member of the Competition Commission (Name and surname):

_____________________________________________________________

Signature _______________

Date _______________