"Positions in Alaska when, in the opinion of the Commission, the use of existing registers or the establishment of new registers is considered impracticable. Former employees who served in positions excepted under this paragraph may be reinstated to positions in Alaska in the department in which they served upon recommendation of the appointing officer and approval of the Civil Service Commission."

(g) Temporary, part-time, or intermittent employment of mechanics.-Section 10, Subdivision I, Schedule A, is as follows:

"Temporary, part-time, or intermittent employments of mechanics, skilled laborers, and tradesmen on construction or repair work in the field services, in places where there is no local board of examiners of the Civil Service Commission for the employing establishment, and where the Commission deems it impracticable to establish registers of eligibles. Seasonal employments of a recurring nature are not authorized under this paragraph."

This provision rarely can be used in the Engineer Department, inasmuch as there are local boards of examiners at most establishments of the Engineer Department.

1004.3. The following items of interest to the Engineer Department are contained in Subdivision IV of Schedule A:

(a) Positions of a quasi-military nature.-Section 4, Subdivision IV, Schedule A, is as follows:

"Positions the duties of which are of a quasi-military nature and involve the security of secret or confidential matter, when in the opinion of the Commission they cannot be filled from registers of eligibles."

(b) Physicians and surgeons on a fee basis or under contract.-Section 9, Subdivision IV, Schedule A, is as follows:

"Physicians and surgeons employed on a fee basis or under contract when, in the opinion of the Commission, the establishment of registers is impracticable."

An agreement of employment will be made with physicians or surgeons engaged under this provision. The agreement may consist of a written tender of appointment stating the terms of engagement and the service to be performed, the fee to be paid and the approximate time for which the services will be required, and including a provision that no Member of or Delegate to Congress, or Resident Commissioner, shall be admitted to any share in the contract or to any benefit to arise from such contract. A report shall be made by letter as soon after June 30 and December 31 of each year as practicable, listing all engagements made under this provision, stating the terms of the engagement and the service actually rendered, with information that the physician is a licensed physician.

1004.4. Employments outside continental limits of the United States (except in Alaska and Canal Zone).-Section 3, Subdivision IV, Schedule B, is as follows:

"Any person employed in an area outside the continental limits of the United States (except the Canal Zone and Alaska), when in the opinion of the Secretary of War the best interests of the service so require."

1005. ENGAGEMENT OF EXPERTS

1005.1. Engagement of experts.-Section 6 of the River and Harbor Act approved July 3, 1930 (Public, No. 520, 71st Cong., 46 Stat. 948; 33 U. S. C. 569a), contains the following provision:

"The Chief of Engineers is hereby authorized to engage under agreement, when deemed necessary, expert assistance in the various arts and sciences,

including expert stenographic assistance for reporting the proceedings of public hearings held in connection with preliminary examinations, surveys, or improvements of rivers and harbors, upon terms and rates of compensation for services and incidental expenses in excess of the maximum of the salaries authorized by the Classification Act of March 4, 1923, as amended by the act of May 28, 1928; and all agreements heretofore entered into for such purposes are hereby validated to the amount of the current rates charged for such services."

The engagement of experts under the above-quoted provision of law must have the prior approval of the Chief of Engineers. When an engagement of this character is desired, request for prior authority to enter into agreement covering the desired service must be submitted to the Chief of Engineers, giving detailed statement of the reasons for the necessity for the employment, the name of the expert whose services are desired, the rate of compensation proposed, and the period of time for which his services will be required. Detailed statement of the qualifications of the person selected for engagement also must be furnished.

1005.2. Section 5 of the River and Harbor Act approved June 20, 1938 (Public, No. 685, 75th Cong.), is as follows:

"That the provisions of section 204 of Part II of the Legislative Appropriation Act, fiscal year 1933, shall not be so construed as to prevent the employment by the Chief of Engineers under agreement as authorized by section 6 of the River and Harbor Act of July 3, 1930, of any retired civilian employee whose expert assistance may be needed in connection with the prosecution of river and harbor or flood-control works: Provided, That during the period of such employment a sum equal to the retired pay of the employee shall be deducted from the compensation agreed upon."

1005.3. Rules governing rates to be paid experts.-The engagement of expert consultants under paragraph 1005.1 of these regulations will be authorized only at rates in excess of $9,000 per annum or $25 per day, the maximum rate now provided in the Classification Act of 1923, as amended. If the services of consultants at rates of $25 per day or less should be desired, their employments must be secured in the manner provided by civil-service rules.

1005.4. Limitation on engagement of experts. It is the policy of the Chief of Engineers to limit the employment of experts to those engagements in which consulting service of the highest order is required. Engineering service within the range of the duties assigned the regular employees of the Department is for performance by employees obtained in accordance with the civil-service rules and departmental regulations. It is also the policy of the Chief of Engineers that the use of consulting service be kept at the minimum consistent with efficient prosecution of the work of the Department.

1005.5. Reports of engagement of experts.-No report will be made in reports of changes in the classified civil service (E. D. Form 28) or on report of emergency and temporary employees (E. D. Form 28a) of the engagement of experts under paragraph 1005.1 of these regulations. Report shall be made to the Chief of Engineers by letter on June 30 and December 31 of each year, listing all contracts or agreements made during the preceding 6 months, or in effect during that 6 months' period, giving name of the expert in each case, statement of the service required, the exact time employed, the pay received, and detailed information as to the qualifications of the expert for the work for which engaged. The information thus reported will be furnished by the Chief of Engineers to the Secretary of War for submission to the Civil Service Commission.

1005.6. Form of agreement for expert services.-Rules governing the form for agreements made under terms of section 3 of the River and Harbor Act of July 3, 1930, are contained in Chapter VII of Orders and Regulations.

1005.7. Provision covering travel of consulting experts.-A provision somewhat as follows shall be included in the specification or condition sheets in all contracts for expert consulting service when such contracts have specification or condition sheets attached; in contracts of a simple nature not having specification or condition sheets, the provision shall be included as Article 7 of the contract:

"Travel will be ordered in writing, from the contractor's business address to be shown on the last page of the contract, or from any point at which the contractor may be located at the time he is called upon to perform services, and return to either of these two points. In lieu of returning to either of the two points mentioned, travel will be ordered in writing for the contractor to proceed from the last point at which his services are required to any other point desired by him, provided the cost to the Government is not in excess of the cost of his returning to his business address or to the point at which he is located at the time his services are required. If the cost to the Government as result of the contractor proceeding to some point other than one of the two points mentioned is greater than the cost would be of returning to one of the two points mentioned, the contractor will be paid an amount not in excess of what the cost would have been to the Government of his returning to the point from which he departed for the performance of the service."

1006. RULES GOVERNING APPOINTMENTS AND ASSIGNMENT OF DUTIES

1006.1. Examinations required.-In making appointments to the positions named in the groups included in paragraph 1002, the following provision of the Civil Service Rules, promulgated by the President, will be rigidly observed: "No person shall be appointed, employed, promoted, or transferred in the classified service, or perform the duties of any position therein, until he passes the examination prescribed by the Commission in his case, unless especially exempted."

1006.2. Inspections to prevent misassignments.-Division Engineers shall provide for such periodical inspections as may be necessary to provide against assignment of employees of unclassified grade to the duties of any classified position, and against the assignment of employees of one civil-service designation to the duties of another civil-service position for which they have not established eligibility under civil-service rules.

1006.3. Provision for advancement of classified employees to higher grade positions. The following instructions are contained in War Department Orders (I) dated August 9, 1939:

WAR DEPARTMENT, Washington, August 9, 1989.

ORDERS

The following regulations governing the advancement of classified employees in the so-called noneducational classes to higher positions of the same class, which have been approved by the Civil Service Commission, will be adopted for the entire field service of the War Department:

ADVANCEMENT OF CLASSIFIED EMPLOYEES TO HIGHER POSITIONS

1. For most employees in the field service of the War Department there is a logical line of advancement to higher positions, and the normal process of

progression is believed to be understood thoroughly by all persons who administer these matters.

2. However, the procedure necessary for specific selection of employees for training in specialized and advanced occupations, to provide for advancement to higher positions, and the possibility for such advancement without specific selection for training, without violation of the regulations of the United States Civil Service Commission prohibiting misassignments, is not believed to be clearly understood.

3. In order to clarify these matters, the following information, which has been worked out in collaboration with the United States Civil Service Commission and has its full sanction, is furnished for the guidance and information of all concerned. Three plans of procedure which may be employed for training classified employees in the so-called noneducational classifications for higher positions of the same class are as follows:

a. Apprenticeship plan.

b. Incidental assignment plan.

c. "In-service" training plan.

Plan a is feasible only in departments having large manufacturing, activities requiring a number of employees in mechanical trades, thus only plans b and c are considered practicable for use throughout the entire field service of the War Department.

a. Apprenticeship plan.-The apprenticeship plan provides for the training of boys of appropriate age for mechanical trades, which require serving an apprenticeship of years to attain a journeyman status. The course of training usually is divided between shop work and study. A school is generally conducted in which a person is given oral or written instructions pertaining to the occupation, and is under the close scrutiny of an instructor during both the study period and the shop period.

b. Incidental assignment plan.-(1) The incidental assignment plan provides an avenue of progress for nonapprenticed classified employees, not only in the trade or artisan classes, but likewise in the skilled occupations, skilled operative classes, etc. For instance, a helper in any trade is required to render assistance to artisans in that trade, and to render such assistance ably and intelligently he must have, or progressively acquire, some general knowledge of the ordinary operations and tools involved. As added knowledge of tools, processes, etc., is acquired by continued close association with artisans in the performance of their duties, the occupant of the helper position may perform some of the rougher or less exacting operations of the trade itself. Similarly, it may be said that a classified laborer or other subordinate classified employee, has opportunity to advance in orderly manner, without risk of misassignment. Classified laborers may be performing, in their daily tasks, only laboring work entirely within the scope of their rating, yet by association with artisans and helpers in a shop gang in the performance of such duties, and by observation, absorbing knowledge of the trade tools, operations, etc., sufficient knowledge may be obtained to justify the advancement of such an employee to an appropriate trade helper rating. Shop helpers (in, mechanical trades usually) may be assigned to operating a drill press on elementary or simple work, or to some other machine, similarly simple in operation, intermittently by incidental assignment, ultimately earning or meriting advancement to appropriate machine operator designation and salary.

(2) By such orderly or methodical progressions along occupational lines, the Commission does not regard with disfavor the assignment to duties of a higher order, incidentally and/or intermittently from time to time, within such limitations as shall hereinafter be set out.

(3) The incidental and/or intermittent assignments shall be governed by the following:

(a) The assignments shall in no case exceed 25 percent of an employee's working time, This 25 percent may be spread by several intermittent assignments for a few days each, or may be effected by placing an employee on a continuing assignment for a period of not to exceed 3 months in a service year, in the discretion of the officer in charge. For the purposes of record and simplicity, it is desirable that, if possible, assignments of 3 months' duration be made beginning at an arbitrary date; for instance, the beginning of either a calendar or fiscal year. If this course is found impracticable, then the 3months' allotment of time should run within a service year, or should not be so administered that an employee "breaking in" in the spring of a year may

spend the 3 months at the close of that calendar year consistently at the new assignment, and continue into the new year with an additional consecutive 3 months, thus exhausting his allotted time for that year.

(b) In cases of incidental assignment, either intermittent for a few days or consecutively for the full 3 months' period permissible, report of the employee or employees involved should be made to the Secretary of the Local Board showing the first and last dates of the assignment. The Secretary of the Board should retain this information as part of the record of the employee or employees involved, and if and when the case of any such employee is presented to the district manager for noncompetitive rerating a transcript of the record showing the incidental assignment should accompany. Credit may not be allowed experience claimed by an applicant unless the same has been made a matter of record with the Board and is reported as such. If there is no local board at an establishment in which incidental assignments may be made, a report will be made annually at the expiration of each calendar year, direct to the district manager, of any such incidental assignments as have been made. In the event any noneducational employee is proposed for change in status on the basis of any experience acquired through incidental assignments within the current calendar year, the recommendation for change in status and attendant papers shall be accompanied by complete records of any such incidental assignments during the current calendar year.

(c) The assignments shall be normally made to a higher step in the same line, or into an equivalent basic position in a related or collateral line; in other words, into a line bearing some relation to his present work, and for which, from the work performed in his present employment, he has demonstrated ability to step up in grade of work, or step over into the related line, as the case may be. The principal exception will be found in the classified laborer group, from which selections for incidental assignment may be made with a view only to affording opportunity to those giving most promise, to learn other work by such assignments, thereby fitting themselves for advancement.

c. "In-service" training plan. (1) The "in-service" training plan similarly affords.an avenue of progression for classified employees in local board positions, by a process differing from the incidental assignment plan, in that the "inservice" training plan is to be motivated by careful selection of such employees as appear to give most promise of application and absorbing required knowledge, and developing the occupational skills requisite to the position or positions of the class referred to, for which the training program has been designed. The plan may have application to a wide range of skilled pursuits, which will generally be distinguished from the apprentice trade or artisan classes of positions. While these latter classes are not to be entirely excluded from the "in-service" training plan, it is believed that advancement therein may be more satisfactorily accomplished by the less formal incidental assignment plan.

(2) Selections for assignment to training under the "in-service" training plan will be made on the basis of efficiency ratings from among employees who have completed probation.

(3) The names of all persons specifically selected for "in-service" training should be furnished in duplicate to the District Manager of the Civil Service Commission with complete information regarding the type of training being given in each case and the position which each such employee is being trained for.

4. The above information applies to classified employees only. Employees in unclassified positions may not be assigned to classified duties. (See Departmental Circular No. 154 dated August 16, 1937, issued by the Civil Service Commission.) In this connection, it is pertinent to mention that assignment out of status in contravention of Civil Service Rules and Regulations can have no beneficial effect, in that the ultimate result is to penalize a capable and ambitious employee and to cause embarrassment and difficulty, both from an administrative and personnel standpoint. In rating examination papers either in open competitive or noncompetitive examinations, the Civil Service Commission cannot allow credit for experience acquired under improper assignment, whether of a classified or unclassified employee.