National Political Service

The National Political Service (NPS; Arabic: الخدمة السياسية الوطنية al-khidmah as-siyāsīyah al-waṭanīyah) is the national civil service commission of the Arab Union. It is responsible for training, certifying and providing professional civil servants to the various agencies and institutions of both the federal government and the individual governments of the Arab Union's 20 republics (federated states). While the vast majority of civil servants certified by the National Political Service are assigned to positions within the executive branch of government, the NPS itself is commissioned by and responsible to the legislative branch, namely the Arab Congress via the Presidium of the Arab Congress, which appoints the Secretary and Secretariat (senior leadership) of the National Political Service and supervises the service's operations; except for the Secretariat itself, the NPS consists entirely of professionally trained career bureaucrats whose tenure is not affected by changes in political leadership. The service is funded by federal taxes, and has 18 active training centres throughout the nation. Non-elected employees of local governments (municipalities) are also considered civil servants but are instead trained and employed directly by the respective municipality's HR department.

All employees and management personnel of the numerous commissions and executive agencies of the federal and republican governments are employed by the NPS and therefore considered contractors for the institution to which they are assigned, with three exceptions: enlisted and civilian personnel of the armed forces (both active and reserve) are directly employed by the Ministry of Defence, police officers and personnel of other law enforcement agencies are considered employees of their respective republic's Ministry of Interior or the federal government's Ministry of Attorney General, and all medical and support staff of the public healthcare system are employed directly by the National Health Authority (NHA). A similar distinction is to be made with employees of state-owned corporations (often called state enterprises), which are controlled by but do not constitute part of the government, meaning the state enterprise itself is the employer of its staff. In 2018, the National Political Service had approximately 1.44 million certified civil servants, making it one of the largest employers in the nation.

The incumbent Secretary of the National Political Service is Dr. Marwan Khallouf, in office since 14 May 2016; from 2006 to 2016 Khallouf was Chair of the Secretariat (the second-most senior position within the NPS). The Secretary of the NPS is an ex officio member of the Executive Office of the President of the Arab Union. The headquarters of the NPS is located on International Plaza in the Ibrahimia borough of Nasser City, the federal capital of the Arab Union.