APPENDIX 5 FINANCIAL STATEMENT EXPLANATORY NOTE Statements showing appropriations, receipts, expenditures and other financial data for a series of years constitute the most effective single means of exhibiting the growth and development of a service. Due to the fact that Congress had adopted no uniform plan of appropriation for the several services and that the latter employ no uniform plan in respect to the recording and reporting of their receipts and expenditures, it is impossible to present data of this character according to any standard scheme of presentation. In the case of some services the administrative reports contain tables showing financial conditions and operations of the service in considerable detail; in others financial data are almost wholly lacking. Careful study has in all cases been made of such data as are available, and the effort has been made to present the results in such a form as will exhibit the financial operations of the services in the most effective way that circumstances permit. In the case of the Personnel Classification Board it is impossible to present any detailed financial data. This arises from the fact that although the Board has been in existence for a period of about eight years, it was not until the passage of the second deficiency appropriation act of July 3, 1930 (46 Stat. L., 860, 865), that the Board was given an appropriation of $187,870 to carry on its regular work.1 Previous to this time the staff of the Board consisted of employees detailed to it by the various departments and independent establishments, such employees being paid from the regular departmental appropriations. As a matter of fact, this original appropriation was not strictly a direct 1 1 For salaries and expenses, including binding and printing. appropriation, but rather an authorization of a transfer of funds from certain departmental appropriations. On February 23, 1931, the independent offices appropriation act for the fiscal year 1932 was passed (Public No. 720, 71 Cong.). This act carried the first regular appropriation to the Board amounting to $218,850.2 Exclusive of these two appropriations for the salaries and expenses of the Personnel Classification Board, there have been two other appropriations, both for the purpose of carrying on the survey of the field service as authorized by the Welch Act, approved on May 28, 1928. The total appropriation for the conduct of the field survey amounted to $95,000, consisting of an appropriation of $75,000, included in the second deficiency act of May 29, 1928 (45 Stat. L., 888), and an appropriation of $20,000, included in the first deficiency bill of March 26, 1930 (46 Stat. L., 95). As of June 30, 1930, there had been expended from the total appropriation of $95,000 the sum of $82,559.71.3 2 For every expenditure "requisite for and incident to the work of the Personnel Classification Board." From the Treasury "Combined Statement of Appropriations, Expenditures, and Balances." APPENDIX 6 EXTENT OF CLASSIFICATION AND STANDARDIZATION IN THE FEDERAL SERVICE Throughout the text, attention has been devoted primarily to a discussion of the movement for reclassification and the present activities and organization of the Personnel Classification Board. Except for brief mention in the footnotes, there has not been presented a summary statement of the extent to which the whole federal civil service is classified, with special reference to gradation of salaries. In view of the fact that the Personnel Classification Board's field of activity and authority are limited strictly to the departmental service in Washington with some few exceptions, and in view of the fact that Congress has, by special legislation, established compensation plans for other services and certain types of positions, it seems well to include in the appendix a statement of the present extent of classification throughout the entire civil service. That such a statement is warranted can perhaps be illustrated by pointing out that the Board's authority now extends to only 45,000 positions of the 564,000 permanent, full-time civilian positions under the executive branch of the United States government.1 The discussion follows these general headings: Civil Service: General, Civil Service: Special, Civil Service: Labor Force and Mechanical Trades, District of Columbia Municipal Government Service, Civil Service: Quasi-Military Organizations, and Military and Naval Establishments. Civil Service: General. The civil service may be divided for the purposes of this appendix into the departmental service and the field service. Although reference has been made throughout the text to the Board's jurisdiction over person1 As of June 30, 1928. nel classification, a summary statement is herewith presented. Departmental Service. The majority of positions in the departmental service and independent establishments of the national government in the District of Columbia are subject to the operation of the Classification Act of 1923, as amended by the Welch Act in 1928 and by the Brookhart Act in 1930. Altogether, about 45,000 positions fall under the provisions of these statutes. Somewhere "between six and seven thousand positions in the departmental service are not subject to the classification act. These are mostly positions in the skilled crafts in such establishments as the Government Printing Office and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing." 2 It may be well to point out that several departmental agencies are not included within the scope of the term "departments and independent establishments." Mention may be made of the Federal Farm Loan Board, Federal Reserve Board, United States Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation, and the National Bank Redemption Agency.3 Certain positions embraced in the labor force and mechanical trades which are excluded are discussed under the appropriate section of this appendix. Field Service. The departmental pay-fixing method and the jurisdiction of the Personnel Classification Board do not "now extend to the field service. Rates of pay for field positions, with the exception of certain groups covered by special statutes, are fixed and controlled by the particular departments in which the positions in question are located. The Classification Act of 1923 defined the term "department" to mean "an executive department of the United States Government, a governmental establishment in the executive branch of the United States Government which is not a part of an executive department, the municipal government of the District of Columbia, the Botanic Garden, Library of Congress, Library Building and Grounds, Government Printing Office, and the Smithsonian Institution." A later law (46 Stat. L., 38) placed positions in the office of the Architect of the Capitol under the jurisdiction of the Personnel Classification Board. There is no central agency charged with the review and coordination of rates of pay in the field service." Nevertheless, a consistent legislative policy has been laid down by Congress for the last seven years to adjust field salaries "so far as may be practicable" to departmental compensation schedules, although "no means has been established for assuring the uniform and equitable application of this policy." Section 3 of the Welch Act is fairly typical of this congressional policy. The heads of the several executive departments and independent establishments are authorized to adjust the compensation of certain civilian positions in the field services, the compensation of which was adjusted by the act of December 6, 1924, to correspond, so far as may be practicable, to the rates established by this act for positions in the departmental services in the District of Columbia. With the completion and presentation to Congress of the Board's fact-finding survey of the field service in February, 1931, the first step toward classification of the field service has been taken. Congress now has at hand information requisite to additional legislation covering this problem. Civil Service: Special. As indicated above, the pay-fixing method and the jurisdiction of the Personnel Classification Board do not now extend to positions in the field service. For certain field organization units and for certain classes of positions in the field service, Congress has, however, enacted compensation and classification legislation. Such organization units and classes of positions are: 1. Postal Service 2. Foreign Service 3. Foreign Commerce Service 4. Immigrant Inspectors 5. Certain Classes of Positions in the Customs Service. Postal Service. Of the 514,000 permanent, full-time positions in the field service of the United States government, approximately 310,000 are positions in the Postal Service. * Positions in the Post Office Department in Washington are, of course, subject to the departmental classification. |