Let’s get straight to the case. A civil servant had started working as a contractor in the MEC (Ministry of Education and Culture) centres. From 2008 his contract was renewed successively, until after nine years the Administration opened a call for competition to provide the position definitively.
In that contest, the official, who until then had deserved impeccable evaluations, received a very low score, especially in the instances of greater margin of appreciation, where subjectivity plays a preponderant role: the evaluation of the superior and the interview. In her opinion, these low qualifications were due to political-partisan questioning of her person, which had nothing to do with her technical performance in public office. All of these reasons why the plaintiff official requested the annulment of the actions taken by the Administration.
The Contentious-Administrative Tribunal (“the ATT”) sided with the official. Basically from the recordings provided, the Court understood that it was sufficiently proven that for almost nine years the interested party had a good performance. In such a way that if the person later obtained such a low grade in the contest, the Administration had to explain the reasons that founded the poor performance.
In the opinion of the majority of the Court, sufficient elements of conviction emerged from the file to conclude that the rating that had been granted to the official – specifically in the item corresponding to the evaluation of her superior – departed from the purpose because it should have been none other than the considered judgment about the performance of the function. In this context, the Court ruled that the motivation of the act was flawed, in such terms as to render illegitimate the evaluation to which the official was subjected.
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