Executive Order—Civil Service: Internal Revenue Rules

ADOPTING AND PROMULGATING ORDER.

In the exercise of the power vested in him by the Constitution, by the seventeen hundred and fifty-third section of the Revised Statutes, and the act entitled "An act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States," approved January 16, 1883, the President hereby makes and promulgates the following rules concerning the classified internal-revenue service, to be known as the Internal-Revenue Rules:

INTERNAL-REVENUE RULE 1.

The classified internal-revenue service shall include all the clerks, storekeepers, storekeepers and gaugers, and gaugers classified under the provisions of section 6 of the act to regulate and improve the civil service of the United States, approved January 16, 1883.

INTERNAL-REVENUE RULE II.

1. To test fitness for admission to the classified internal-revenue service, examinations a practical character shall be provided on such subjects as the Commission may direct.

2. The following age limitations shall apply to applicants for the classified internal-revenue service: For clerk, not under 18 years of age; for storekeepers, storekeepers and gaugers, and for gaugers, not under 21 years of age.

3. Blank forms of application shall be furnished by the secretaries of the several Internal-revenue boards of examiners to any person desiring to be examined who applies therefor in person or by letter in his own handwriting.

4. The date of reception of each application and also of its approval by the board shall be noted on the application paper.

5. Exceptions from examination in the classified internal-revenue service are hereby made as follows:

6. No person appointed to a place excepted from examination by any internal-revenue rule shall be transferred from such place to another place not also excepted from examination.

INTERNAL-REVENUE RULE III.

1. The Commission shall appoint in each classified internal-revenue district a board of examiners, which shall.

(a) Conduct all examinations for admission to or promotion in the classified service of the internal-revenue district in which the board is located.

(b) Conduct such other examinations as the Commission may direct.

(c) Mark the papers of such examinations as the Commission may direct.

2. The papers of every examination shall be marked under the direction of the Commission, and each competitor shall be graded on a scale of 100, according to general average determined by the marks of the examiners.

3. Immediately after the general average shall have been ascertained each competitor shall be notified that he has passed or has failed to pass.

4. No competitor who has failed to pass an examination and no eligible during the period of his eligibility shall be allowed reexamination unless he shall furnish satisfactory evidence to the Commission that at the time of his examination he was, because of illness or other good cause, incapable of doing himself justice; and his rating on such reexamination, if an eligible, shall cancel and be a substitute for his rating on his previous examination.

5. All competitors whose claim to preference under section 1754, Revised Statutes, has been allowed by the Commission who attain a general average of 65 per cent or over, and all other competitors who attain a general average of 70 per cent or over, shall be eligible for appointment to the place for which they were examined, and the names of all the eligibles shall be entered in the order of grade on the proper register of eligibles.

6. When two or more eligibles are of the same grade, preference in certification shall be determined by the order in which their application papers were filed.

7. The period of eligibility shall be one year from the date on which the name of the eligible is entered on the register.

INTERNAL-REVENUE RULE IV.

1. All vacancies, unless filled by promotion, reduction, transfer, or reappointment, shall be filled in the following manner:

(a) When a vacancy occurs in any district, the collector thereof shall report the fact to the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, stating the class in which the vacancy occurs and whether in his judgment the place should be filled. If the Commissioner decides that the good of the public service requires that it be filled, he shall request the secretary of the board of examiners of that district to certify to him the names of persons eligible to the vacant place.

(b) If fitness for the vacant place is tested by competitive examination, the names of the three eligibles highest in grade on the proper register who have not been three times certified shall be certified; but if the request indicates the sex of the eligibles desired the three highest in grade of that sex shall be certified: Provided , That the eligibles upon any register who have been allowed preference under section 1754 of the Revised Statutes shall be certified, according to their grade, before all other eligibles thereon: Provided further, That no certification for an appointment shall be made under this clause while there are persons in the district in which any vacancy may exist, who have been removed from the service in that district on account of a reduction of the force or otherwise, who are eligible for reinstatement under Internal-Revenue Rule VII, and who are willing to reenter the service by reinstatement. Every collector of internal revenue shall keep a list of all such persons in his office, and said persons shall have preference for reinstatement to the service in the order of their separation therefrom.

(c) No eligible shall be certified more than three times.

2. Of the three names certified to him the Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall select one, and may select more than one if more than one vacancy exists at the time the certification is made. If the vacancy is in the class of clerk, the Commissioner shall certify the name of the person selected by him to the collector of the district in which the vacancy occurs and the collector shall make the appointment. If the vacancy is in the storekeepers', gaugers', or storekeepers and gaugers' class, the Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall certify the name to the Secretary of the Treasury with his recommendation that the person whose name is thus certified be appointed: Provided, That if any objection is made under section 3 of General Rule IV to any eligible certified, and is sustained by the Commission, another eligible shall be certified in the place of the one objected to.

3. Each person thus selected for appointment shall be notified, and upon indicating his acceptance shall be appointed for a probationary period of six months, at the end of which period, if his conduct and capacity be satisfactory to the appointing officer, he shall receive absolute appointment; but if his conduct and capacity be not satisfactory to said officer he shall be so notified, and this notification shall be his discharge from the service: Provided , That any probationer may be discharged during probation for misconduct or evident unfitness or incapacity.

4. The Commissioner of Internal Revenue shall require the collector under whom a probationer is serving to carefully observe and report in writing upon the services rendered by and the character and qualifications of such probationer as to punctuality, industry, habits, ability, and adaptability. These reports shall be preserved on file in the office of the collector, and copies thereof shall be filed with the Commissioner of Internal Revenue for such disposition as the Secretary of the Treasury may direct. The Civil Service Commission may prescribe the form and manner in which these reports shall be made.

5. In case of the occurrence of a vacancy in the classified service of any internal-revenue collection district which the public interest requires shall be immediately filled, and there is no eligible entitled to reinstatement under section I, clause (b), of this rule or remaining on the proper register, such vacancy, if in the class of storekeeper, storekeeper and gauger, or clerk, may be filled without examination and certification by a temporary designation by the collector of the district of some suitable person to perform the duties of the position until a regular appointment can be made under the provisions of sections 1, 2, and 3 of this rule: Provided , That service under such temporary designation shall in no case continue longer than six months, and shall expire by limitation at the end of that time: And provided further , That no person shall serve more than six months in any one year under such temporary designation, the year limitation in regard to such designation to begin to run on the date thereof.

Every such temporary designation and also the discontinuance of the same shall at once be reported to the Commission.

INTERNAL-REVENUE RULE V.

Until promotion regulations shall have been applied to a classified internal-revenue collection district promotions therein may be made upon any test of fitness determined upon by the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, with the approval of the Commission: Provided , That no employee shall be promoted to any grade he could not enter by appointment under the minimum age limitation applied thereto by section 2 of Internal-Revenue Rule II.

INTERNAL-REVENUE RULE VI.

Transfers may be made as follows:

From one classified internal-revenue collection district to another, from any classified internal-revenue collection district to a bureau in the Treasury Department in which business relating to the internal revenue is transacted, and from such a bureau in the Treasury Department to such a district, upon the requisition of the Secretary of the Treasury and the certification of the Commission, the appointment upon such transfer to be made by the Secretary of the Treasury, upon the recommendation of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, if the place to be filled by such transfer is that of storekeeper, storekeeper and gauger, or gauger: Provided , That no person shall be transferred as herein authorized who is not within the age limitations prescribed by the civil-service rules for the place to which he is to be transferred and who has not been absolutely appointed, or, if appointed without civil-service examination, who has not served six months continuously in the district or bureau from which he is to be transferred.

INTERNAL-REVENUE RULE VII.

Upon the requisition of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue the secretary of the board of examiners for his district shall certify for reinstatement in a grade requiring no higher examination than the one in which he was formerly employed any person who within one year next preceding the date of the requisition has through no delinquency or misconduct been separated from the classified service of said district: Provided, That certification may be made. subject to the other conditions of this rule, for the reinstatement of any person who served in the military or naval service of the United States in the late War of the Rebellion and was honorably discharged therefrom, or the widow of any such person, without regard to the length of time he or she has been separated from the service.

INTERNAL-REVENUE RULE VIII.

Each collector in the classified internal-revenue service shall report to the board of examiners --

(a) Every probational and every absolute appointment and every appointment to an excepted or to an unclassified place in the internal-revenue service under him.

(b) Every refusal to make an absolute appointment and the reason therefor, and every refusal to accept an appointment.

(c) Every separation from the internal-revenue service under him and the cause of such separation, whether death, resignation, or dismissal.

(d) Every restoration to the internal-revenue service under him.

GROVER CLEVELAND.

AMENDMENT OF CUSTOMS RULE IV.

Customs Rule IV is hereby amended by adding thereto the following section, to be numbered 5:

5. In case of the occurrence of a vacancy in the classified service of any customs district which the public interest requires shall be immediately filled, and there is no eligible remaining on the proper register, such vacancy may be filled by temporary appointment without examination and certification until a regular appointment can be made under the provisions of sections I and 2 of this rule: Provided, That such temporary appointment shall in no case continue longer than ninety days and shall expire by limitation at the end of that time: And provided further , That no person shall serve more than ninety days in any one year under such temporary appointment, the year limitation in regard to such appointment to begin to run on the date thereof.

Every such temporary appointment and also the discontinuance of the same shall at once be reported to the Commission.

Approved, May 18, 1895.

GROVER CLEVELAND.