Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1925-01-17
Hits Act Application.

the National Association of Civil
Service Employees.
Hits Act Application.
Representative stengle sums up the
fault with the Personnel Classification
Board in two words, bad administra-
ton"
The act Itself may be susceptible of
improvement in certain minor particu-
lars, but nothing far reaching can be
accomplished until changes are made in
the body administering the act" said
the speaker, mot until the act has been
( applied by an administrative agency de-
sirous Of giving full effect to it's obvious
intent can any one say what may be
wrong with the details of the law. At
present all, any one who studies the
situation can see is gross and wilful
maladministration, in the face of which
no act could be successful.
Take the familiar charge Of dis
elimination and favoritism in a1lo-
eating positions to classes and grades
under the Act. What do you find?
The obvious intent of the Act was
that the Personnel Classification
Board was to prepare and publish
class specifications, in d form pre-
scribed by the Act. to guide and
govern the administrative officers in
allocating positions to the salary
SCnedule contained IN the ACT w nat
did the Board do? It failed to pre-
pare and publish the class specif-
cations required by the act IN ad-
vance of the allocations. 1t required
depa artment heads to make the alloca-
tion, not to the schedule contained in
the act. but to the discredited Bureau
Of Efficiency schedule. That every
schedule had been offered on the floor
of this House as an amendment to the
. ,.l eF <lra1Y lon
whelmingly rejected. Yet the major
ity of the Personnel Classification
Board under the influence of outside
forces, required department heads to
allocate positions to the very sched
ule this House had rejected.
Officers Not Controlled.
THE administrative officers of the
departments were not controlled, :
Congress intended they should be
controlled. by class Specifications in
the form prescribed by the act. The
discredited Bureau of Efficiency
schedule had been rejected by the
committee because it was too incom-
plete, fragmentary and indefinite to
service as a basis for controlling ad-
ministrators and securing real classi
fication.
ION what did the Personnel Board
rely for securing uniformity of action
on the part of all administrators and
for preventing favoritism and discrimi-
nation? Mainly upon handful of en-
ployes of the Bureau of Efficiency de-
tailed to the Personnel Board In twos
or threes they were detailed to confer
with departmental administrators.
Under the circumstances it is no
wonder that members of this House
hear stories of favoritism and discrim-
nation and even OF trades between rep
resentatives of the Personnel Board
and the administrative officers. Fa-
voritism, discrimination and trades are
inevitable in the situation unless def
mite measures are taken TO prevent
them. The preventive measures, re-
quired by the act, the board refused to
take. 1t is safe to assert that the ma
jority of employees believe that this re-
classification was made on the basis
of existing rates of pay, rather than
on duties and responsibilities. the
act required, except in the case of up
per administrative officers.
Says Review Was Fnke.
did the board itself review these
ALLEGATIONS to bring about uniformity
across departmental lines and to detect
+ favoritism Partially and trades? 1t
went through some motions which the
majority members of the board might
be pleased to call review, but any
one who knows the problem of review
ing thousands of ALLEGATIONS knows
that review was a fake.
ITO aid in keeping administrators
of the straight and narrow road OF
righteousness, to prevent them from
dallying down the pleasant paths of
favoritism and discrimination, it is
generally recognized that one OF the
best forces is the knowledge and
public opinion of the employees. Fs-
voritism and discrimination seek the
dark secluded places. They cannot
flourish in the light.
What did the Bureau of Efficiency
do in running the personnel board?
1t decreed, no light that can possibly
be prevented: Many employees in