Page images
PDF
EPUB

CASES INVESTIGATED AND RECOMMENDED FOR DISMISSAL FROM SERVICE

Mr. WIGGLESWORTH. Could you give us for the record a breakdown, by departments and agencies, of the number of cases in which you have recommended dismissal?

Mr. FLEMMING. Yes, we can. In other words take, for example, this first 6 months; I have a break-down of 8,238, and that can be broken down by departments and agencies for the first 6 months.

(NOTE. The statement requested cannot be prepared in time for the printed hearings, but upon completion will be furnished to the committee.)

POST-APPOINTMENT EXAMINATIONS

Mr. DIRKSEN. Going back to the question about civil-service examinations.

Mr. FLEMMING. Yes.

Mr. DIRKSEN. Do any of the agencies or departments taking on personnel undertake to give them an examination after they have been working for 1 or 3 months?

Mr. FLEMMING. No, not to my knowledge.

Mr. DIRKSEN. That has not been the fact?

Mr. FLEMMING. Not as far as I know.

Mr. DIRKSEN. I have been advised that there were people who did not take the examination, and after they went to work that they would take an examination, after they get in the service.

Mr. WOODRUM. They are first cleared by the civil service.

Mr. DIRKSEN. They have to be cleared.

Mr. MITCHELL. There have been instances where this has happened, where they have come up afterward for an examination, where someone had taken them on the rolls, and the person employed did not know anything about the regulations in such instances if the individual was all right as to qualifications the Commission approved. The employee involved was just not informed.

Mr. FLEMMING. There have been instances, as Mr. Mitchell indicates. Sometimes that may happen, but it is not in accordance with our regulations.

Mr. DIRKSEN. They do not have that authority?

Mr. FLEMMING. They would not have, and if persons go on the pay roll without clearing through the Commission, they are not legally entitled to compensation for the period of time that they served without our approval.

PERSONNEL CLASSIFICATION DIVISION

With respect to personnel classification, we are requesting an increase of 49 positions, at a cost of $140,000; 21 departmental; 28 in the field.

First I would like to call attention to the manner in which the Personnel Classification Division has handled its job. During the fiscal year 1941 the average cost of handling classification actions was $2.51. During 1942 it was $1.69; and for the first 6 months of the fiscal year 1943 it has been $1.44.

81710-43-55

The production per capita, on an annual basis, of employee of the Personnel Classification Division in 1942 was 1,374; for the first 6 months in 1943 it has been 1,776.

So again our production has gone up, and our costs have gone down.

I would also like to point out that the Classification Division has made real progress in the direction of decentralizing the work to departments and maintaining the necessary controls through postaudits rather than pre-audits.

For example, in March 1942, 55 percent of the classification actions were pre-audited by the Commission; and 44 percent were postaudited. In November 1942, 23 percent were pre-audited, and 76 percent were post-audited.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. You do not have to hold any civil service, that is, general civil-service examinations throughout the country? Mr. FLEMMING. Not in the sense that we did in normal times. Mr. FITZPATRICK. That is not necessary?

Mr. FLEMMING. Not to the extent that it was in normal times. Mr. FITZPATRICK. Before the emergency you used to hold annual examinations?

Mr. FLEMMING. Yes.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. Every 2 or 3 years for different positions?
Mr. FLEMMING. Yes.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. At a time when competition was very keen for Government positions. You don't have to do that now?

Mr. FLEMMING. Not in the sense of examining thousands of persons whose services would never be needed.

Mr. FITZPATRICK. That expense has been eliminated?

Mr. FLEMMING. Yes; except in place of that we have to go into the field to seek applicants and it takes considerable money, sometimes more money than it did when we were just holding examinations for the people who filed applications.

Returning to the classification activity, there is a slight increase asked for in connection with the field operations of the Personnel Classification Division. The reason for that is to bring about, or try to bring about a greater degree of uniformity in connection with salaries paid by the various agencies in the field. Where you have a sharp divergence between salaries paid for comparable jobs in the field naturally it contributes to turn-over.

And so, we are endeavoring to develop standards in the hope that we can eliminate some of the disparity which now exists in the pay received for comparable jobs.

Judge Woodrum, I think this is the appropriate time to take up the project of the Board of Legal Examiners.

Mr. WOODRUM. Does that cover everything else?

Mr. FLEMMING. Yes; I think so; Mr. Mitchell has already discussed

the retirement project.

SERVICE-RECORDS ACTIVITY

As far as our service-records activity is concerned, there is a reduction of 40 people, with salaries, $63,000.

Then of course in addition to that the authority to spend the money Congress appropriated to handle classifications under the Ramspeck Act runs out on June 30.

In that connection I would like to point out to the committee that by the end of the fiscal year we will return to the Treasury $600,000 of the money appropriated for handling classifications under the Ramspeck Act.

RETIREMENT FUNDS

Mr. WOODRUM. I would like to have for the record-it is not necessary to go into it now unless someone present has the information a statement as to the retirement funds and trust funds, setting them up in the record, with something on the withdrawals and accretions, and whatever should be said in justification for the increase of 1944.

Mr. DIRKSEN. With the totals in the fund.

Mr. MITCHELL. We have a statement here covering that.

Mr. WOODRUM. And a statement for the Canal Zone fund; as well as the Alaska Railroad retirement and disability fund.

Mr. CASE. Is there some way to have that broken down so as to show the amount required in the appropriation to meet the regular obligations between the administration of the work of the Civil Service Commission and the retirement funds?

Mr. WOODRUM. I think the statement will cover that.
Mr. CUSTER. That is very clearly set out in our justifications.
(The statements requested follow:)

Civil-service retirement and disability fund, receipts and disbursements, final report, July 1, 1941, through June 30, 1942

[blocks in formation]

Annuities paid from regular deductions. $65, 190, 623. 76
Annuities paid from voluntary contribu-

[blocks in formation]

Civil-service retirement and disability fund, receipts and disbursements, final report, July 1, 1941, through June 30, 1942-Continued

[blocks in formation]

Canal Zone retirement and disability fund, receipts and disbursements, final report July 1, 1941, through June 30, 1942

Balance in the fund July 1, 1941:

$7, 275, 313. 53

4, 926, 571. 40 781, 400, 000. 00 1,250,000. 00

794, 851, 884. 93

871, 229, 664. 19

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

$2,984. 63

236, 134. 15

32, 217. 76

[blocks in formation]

Total per disbursing officer.

Deduct repayments:

Refund....

Net disbursements.

Balance in the fund June 30, 1942:

Disbursing cash

Treasury cash..

Invested

Total.

1 Includes deposits and redeposits for purchase of service credit.

Alaska Railroad retirement and disability fund, receipts and disbursements, final report, July 1, 1941, through June 30, 1942

[blocks in formation]

Statement showing derivation of estimate of appropriation for civil service retirement and disability fund, for fiscal year 1944

[blocks in formation]

1 Increase of $30,995,422 due to greatly enlarged membership, from total of 645,000 to 885,000 employees. 2 Increase of $19,019,630 due to proposed amendment H. R. 3487, per testimony, p. 24, of supplemental hearing of Aug. 23, 1941.

3 Increase of $19,830,570 due, in part to enlarged membership and increase in average salary rate, but principally, to adjustments on account of the new mortality table, per Mr. Buck's letter of Dec. 28, 1942 This letter explains the effects of the new mortality table on the normal rate.

« PreviousContinue »