Centre Wants Govt Exam System to be Leakage-Proof, Highlights Five Gaps Leading to Scams | Exclusive

Amidst a spate of government recruitment scams and paper leaks reported from across the country, the Centre has told all its ministries to take urgent action to make the examination system “leakage-proof” and has also highlighted five gaps that are leading to frequent scams.

“Remote access programme like ‘Ammyy Admin’ and ‘Any Desk’ pre-installed at examination centres can be used by solvers sitting at different locations to answer the papers remotely,” says a letter written by Radha Chauhan, Secretary of Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), to all ministries. News18 has a copy of the said letter.

The letter says most examination conducting agencies have switched from the pen-paper mode to computer-based tests but still scams and leakages are being reported with some managing to gain remote access to computers on which the exams are conducted. “Outdated and pirated versions of operating systems in the computers at the exam centres compromise the security system,” the letter says.

The DoPT secretary had further said absence of licensed anti-virus in the computer systems used at the exam centres make it vulnerable to custom-made remote access programmes. “Exam software used without prior security assessment from any CERT-In empaneled firms and absence of fool-proof remote access detection and internet access detection capability weakens oversight,” the letter mentions.

As the fifth gap, the secretary had warned that “no network segmentation” makes it easier for remote solver to access the system from outside. “Kindly ensure timely action to address these gaps so as to make the examination system leakage proof,” the secretary wrote.

The Root Cause

The DoPT secretary has written that any loophole in the government recruitment examinations poses a threat to the credibility of the selection process and this is an important area that needs due attention to ensure integrity of examination processes.

“The Examination Conducting Agencies (ECAs) outsource processes associated with the conduct of the examination to various tech companies. Some ECAs trust the entire examination system to outsourced companies on turn-key basis,” the secretary wrote.

He said it has been observed that these companies at times further outsource different activities of examinations to some other local companies. All this is contributing to the scams and leakages.