Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1943-03-11
Pull Charged
On Thousands Of
Federal Jobs
Civil Service Cont
Probe All Cases,
FIemming Testifies
By WILL p. KENNEDY,

AIIluT .. FleInI1llQS, civil SeEV =
ice commissioner, admitted to
the House Civil Service Com
mittee today that there may be
thousands on the Federal pay
roll today as result of nepotism,
vicious office policies" and other
methods of favoritism.
Replying to direct questions from
Chairman Ramspeck, Representa-
tive Rees OF Kansas ranking Repub-
lican member of the committee, and
Representative Randolph of West
Virginia, ranking Democratic men,
Der, Mr.. Flemming submitted figures
showing that during the past six
months administrative officers have
requested the employment of 102, 900
persons as result of their unau-
thorized recruiting activities" OF
this number the Civil Service Com
mission rejected IA per cent, but 81
AS were approved.
We had nothing but the paper
record presented to us to rely on, y
MI Flemming said The commits
sion honestly endeavored to get the
best qualified employees available
Back of that may be Office politics
and nepotiSm, which is most vicious,
but under existing circumstances of
time, recourses and war pressure we
could not investigate all of these
cases. The commission has tried to
do Its best, but mistakes have I'M
doubtedly been made
Audit on Personnel Submitted.
Mr. Flemming submitted an audit
of appointments made during the
six-month period from September
1912, covering 100000 placements.
Representative Rees and Represent
alive Ramspeck said that the audit
came too late. Mr. Flemming empha
sized that during the war emer-
gency, when personnel demands in
creased, the commission could not
follow its normal procedure of &C
coping those who stood at the head
of civil service lists as result of
competitive examinations.
He admitted that there are some
utterly incompetent persons on the
Federal payroll" but added that two
things have been accomplished
First, the agencies got their per-
sonnet quicker, he said, and second
the commission has been able to
keep incompetents out of the serv-
ice.
Under our normal procedure for
a strict civil service system" he said
we could have put on better quail
fed persons. but we would have de-
layed seriously the war program
AS time goes on we are going tC
be tougher and tougher as the work
loads 60 down and appointments
will be made on quality aspects
rather than on quantitive aspects
Chairman Ramspeck and Rep.
reSentatives Randolph and ReeS
complimented Mr.. Flemming on his
attitude and expressed confidence
in the Civil Service Commission
They said they wished it had beer
able to hold a strict hand over ap-
pointments.
Early OPA Hiring Discussed.
The regime of Leon Henderson
with OPA was taken to task by sew
eral members of the committee
Chairman Ramspeck asked Did not
Leon Henderson issue orders direct
ing all his agencies to see the Gov.
errors of the State before making ap.
pointments?' Mr.. Flemming agreed
IN part, but said that the act Great
ing the OPA placed some obligation
or the administrator to consult
State authorities and this was con-
Strued as equivalent to an executive
order that the first appointments
should be exempt from competitive
examinations, but there should later
be non-competitive tests.
MI Flemming admitted that the
commission had not been successful
in restraining OPA from selecting
its own personnel as in other
agencies.
1t was brought out that the COM
mission was in position to render
adequate service for personnel of
the OPA or other agencies. Repre-
sentative Manasco, Democrat. of
Alabama interjected, You couldn t
have done any worse than they re-
cruited. Representative Randolph
challenged reports that the OPA
and WPB put certain specialists
in fields in which they lacked ex-
perience. For example, a history
munity only one year was said to
have been named rent administrator
with no knowledge of the problems
involved