Subject: Formal Petition for Urgent Reconsideration of Re-Assessment Directive and Immediate Admission to the Maritime Academy 

Dear EMTI Management,

We, the undersigned candidates of the ME25 3rd Round training cohort, submit this formal petition to register our collective objection to the recent directive communicated by Human Resources, which instructs our group to restart the entire recruitment process from the beginning. Having already fulfilled all our obligations, passed all assessments, and signed legally binding training agreements with EMTI, we consider the demand to retake the written examinations and interviews alongside new applicants to be contractually invalid, deeply unjust, and unacceptable. We urgently request that management reconsider this position and provide a definitive solution granting us direct admission to the academy. 

We urge management to review the following factual, contractual, and equitable grounds:

• Full Fulfillment of Candidate Duties and Selection Stages: Every member of our group complied with all institutional requirements and successfully cleared each rigorous stage of EMTI’s recruitment framework. This includes passing the initial written examination, the technical evaluation, the personal interview, and the comprehensive official medical examination. No stage of our qualification remains unfulfilled or incomplete. 

• Existence of Executed, Legally Binding Agreements: Following our successful qualification, both EMTI and each candidate in our cohort entered into and signed formal training agreements in July 2025. These executed contracts created legitimate, enforceable rights and solidified our status as contracted trainees awaiting scheduling. 

• Institutional Delay Beyond Candidate Control: Nearly two years have elapsed since our initial examinations, and over fifteen months have passed since the execution of our contracts in July 2025. While earlier cohorts (Rounds 1 and 2) advanced into active training, our cohort was kept waiting purely due to internal institutional pacing and administrative delays, not candidate default or academic deficiency. 

• Invalidity of Re-Testing Qualified, Contracted Trainees: Ordering individuals who have already been certified, approved, and placed under signed contracts to repeat baseline exams and interviews invalidates EMTI’s own prior evaluation standards. Forcing contracted candidates to compete against new applicants ignores the binding legal commitment EMTI made to our group. 

• Impermissibility of Retroactive Policy and Age Adjustments: The recent disqualifications communicated by HR rely on newly adjusted age brackets and criteria introduced well after our selection and contract execution. Under basic administrative and legal principles, policy modifications must apply prospectively to future applicant cohorts. They cannot be retroactively applied to strip away vested contractual rights from candidates who met all criteria at the time of vetting and agreement. 

• Severe Opportunity Costs and Material Harm: Relying in good faith on our signed agreements and EMTI’s institutional standing, we turned down alternative employment offers, forfeited academic programs, and put our professional careers on hold for nearly two years. Disqualifying our group after causing these delays subjects us to catastrophic personal and financial loss. 

• Unified Standing of the Cohort: Our group comprises more than 25 qualified candidates who remain united, bound by identical agreements from July 2025, and resolved to protect our contractual standing. 

In light of our verified qualification records, our completed medical clearances, and our executed training agreements, we respectfully request that EMTI Management:

Given the considerable time that has already passed, we respectfully request that this matter be treated as a priority and that management provide an official written decision within 15 working days. We cannot continue to remain indefinitely uncertain about our professional futures while the opportunity for which we completed the selection process remains unresolved 

We hold EMTI in high regard as a center of national excellence and remain committed to serving Ethiopia's maritime sector. We trust management will resolve this administrative oversight fairly and honor the commitments established between both parties. 

Respectfully submitted,

The Candidates of ME25 3rd Round