HRs in public service are well known to be JLB one. Add on, now coming to year end mostly clearing their weeks of leave and mostly no need back up personnel to cover their duties cos its not even urgent work. but honestly there are so many people vying for a position in public service, most of the time your resume do not even pass the HR stage as they dont even get to click your resume or take a look at it. The hiring panel only gets to see what the HR sees and passes to them