All positions subject to the provisions of this chapter shall be classified by the Personnel Officer according to their duties and responsibilities and shall be grouped into classes on the basis of their similarities in duties, responsibilities, and desirable qualifications. Each class shall be given a title which shall apply to all positions therein, and which shall be used for all personnel, budgetary, and financial purposes. In preparing the position classification plan, the Personnel Officer shall consult with appropriate management officials. The Personnel Officer may change a position from one class to another when substantial changes have occurred in the duties and responsibilities of the position. The Personnel Officer shall determine the status of occupants of positions which have been so reclassified.
Except as otherwise provided in this chapter, all positions covered by this chapter and for which appropriations shall have been made shall be recruited by advertisement, for the period and by the media which are appropriate in the circumstances. The advertisement shall include at least the position title, the salary, a brief description of the class, the location of the vacancy or vacancies, the qualification standards required, and the time and place of the examination, if any. The closing date for filing applications shall be clearly stated. On applications which are mailed, the date stamp of the post office on the mailing envelope shall be used to determine compliance with the deadline stated in the advertisement.
(1) General character. There shall be competitive examinations, whenever possible and as determined by the Personnel Officer, to test the relative fitness of candidates for public service positions covered by this chapter. Examinations may be written, oral, performance, or any combination thereof, and shall provide for ascertaining the physical and educational qualifications, experience, knowledge, and skill of applicants and their relative capacity and fitness for the duties of the positions they seek. All examinations shall be free and, except for promotional examinations, shall be open to all candidates, but with such limitations in regard to health, physical condition, education, training, experience, and other relevant matters as are appropriate to the class for which the examination is given. All examinations shall be under the control of the Personnel Officer or of such person or persons as he may designate to administer them. All persons who have passed an examination may be required to take such physical examination as may be specified by the Personnel Officer.
(2) Promotional examinations. Examinations may be promotional whenever, in the opinion of the Personnel Officer, such examinations are practicable and for the best advantage of the public service. The Personnel Officer shall give ample notice of any promotional examination.
(3) Open-competitive examinations. Examinations shall be open-competitive whenever, in the opinion of the Personnel Officer, such examinations are practicable and for the best advantage of the public service. The Personnel Officer shall give ample notice of any open-competitive examination.
(4) Noncompetitive examinations. Noncompetitive examinations may be given when, in the opinion of the Personnel Officer, the class for which the examination is to be given calls for special qualifications which could not practically be evaluated through competition, or when the number of qualified candidates does not exceed the number of vacancies to be filled.
(1) General. The Personnel Officer shall cause to be established and maintained separate eligible lists for all classes in which vacancies exist or are anticipated. Eligible lists may be open-competitive, promotional, or reemployment, depending on whether they result from open-competitive examinations, promotional examinations, or reemployment registration. An eligible list may remain active for one year, except that the name of a person otherwise eligible may remain on a reemployment list for three years. The active life of an open-competitive or promotional list may be extended by the Personnel Officer if candidates thereon remain available and there are more vacancies to be filled than names on the list.
(2) Reemployment lists.
(a) Whenever any employee who has been performing his duties in a satisfactory manner, as shown by the appropriate records, is laid off or demoted because of lack of work or lack of funds, or has voluntarily accepted a position in a lower class, or whenever such an employee’s position has been reclassified to a lower class, he shall have the right to have his name registered on the appropriate reemployment list for a period of three years thereafter by filing a written application for registration. Such application form shall be provided to him at the time of notification of adverse personnel action. A person on a reemployment list shall be eligible for certification to positions in the class in which he last held permanent status or in a related class, in the same or a lower salary range, for which he meets qualification requirements.
(b) The Personnel Officer may remove the name of a person from any eligible list or refuse to certify his name from any list of eligible persons if he finds, after giving him notice and an opportunity to be heard, that the person is no longer able to perform the necessary duties satisfactorily.
All vacancies and new positions in the public service shall be filled in the following manner:
(1) Whenever there is a position to be filled, the management official shall ask the Personnel Officer to submit a list of persons eligible. The Personnel Officer shall thereupon certify a list of five, or such lesser number as may be available, taken from eligible lists in the following order: first, reemployment lists; second, promotional lists; and third, open-competitive lists. The management official shall make the appointment from the list of eligibles submitted to him unless he finds no person available and acceptable to him on the list, in which case he will ask the Personnel Officer to certify a new list, stating in writing his reason for rejecting each of the eligibles on the list previously submitted to him. If the Personnel Officer finds such reasons adequate, he shall then submit a new list of no more than five eligibles selected in like manner, from which the management official shall make an appointment. If the Personnel Officer does not find the reasons adequate, he shall resubmit the list and the appointment shall be made therefrom.
(2) A management official may fill a vacant position in his department, office, or other agency by promoting any regular employee therein without examination, if the employee meets the minimum class qualifications of the position to which he is to be promoted, and if the position is in the same series as the position held by the employee or is clearly an upward progression in the same career-ladder of positions; provided that a qualified employee who is a citizen of the Federated States of Micronesia shall be given preference for promotion over a noncitizen employee; and provided further, that when there is no material difference between the qualifications of employees holding the same citizenship status, the employee with the longest public service will receive first consideration for promotion.
Source: COM PL 4C-49 § 10(4); COM PL 5-51 § 11: COM PL 6-103 § 2; TT Code 1980, 61 TTC 10(4); PL 1-47 § 12.
(1) Conviction of a crime of moral turpitude shall not be a bar to employment in the public service unless the nature of the crime renders the candidate clearly unsuitable for the position applied for. The Assistant Secretary for Personnel Administration, Department of Finance and Administration shall maintain a list of positions and disqualifying crimes. A pardon shall operate to remove any bar to employment which would have arisen as a result of the crime for which the pardon was granted.
(2) The Commission of or the attempt to commit any material deception or fraud in connection with any application or examination shall cause removal and permanent disqualification from appointment in the public service, after due notice and hearing by the Assistant Secretary for Personnel Administration, Department of Finance and Administration.
(3) Participation in a State Government’s Early Retirement Program, shall be a basis for disqualification from appointment in the public service including appointment to a National Government position that is exempt from the National Public Service System. Such disqualification shall be effective for so long as the candidate would have been disqualified from such appointment if the candidate had participated in the National Government Early Retirement Program.
(1) Provisional appointment pending establishment of an eligible list. When there is no eligible person available on a list appropriate for filling vacancy in a continuing position and the public interest requires that it be filled before eligibles can be certified, the Personnel Officer may authorize the filling of the vacancy through provisional appointment. The Personnel Officer shall proceed without delay to announce an examination to fill the vacancy. The provisional appointment shall continue only for such period as may be necessary to make an appointment from an eligible list but shall not extend beyond 90 days; provided that the Personnel Officer may extend the provisional appointment for a maximum of 90 additional days if an examination has failed to secure any qualified available eligible person.
(2) Emergency appointments. To prevent the stoppage of essential public business, management officials may make emergency appointments, not to exceed ten working days, to fill positions temporarily in any serious emergency when time is insufficient to follow normal appointment procedure. The Personnel Officer may, for good and sufficient cause stated in writing by the management official concerned, extend the appointment for an additional period not to exceed 20 working days.
(3) Qualifications. Provisional and temporary appointees must meet the qualification requirements for the class of the position to be filled.
(1) Every employee shall successfully serve a probation period before becoming a regular employee. An employee whose services are unsatisfactory during his probation period may be dismissed from the public service at any time by the responsible management official. An employee so dismissed shall have no right of appeal; but, if the employee so requests, the Personnel Officer may in his discretion insert the employee’s name on the eligible list or lists for other positions in the same class.
(2) A regular employee who is promoted or transferred to another position in the public service shall be required to serve a new probation period in his new position, but he shall be entitled to all the rights and privileges of a member of the public service except the right to appeal in case of removal from the new position, as distinguished from dismissal from the public service. In case of such removal, the employee shall be reinstated in his former position or in another position in the same class, without prejudice.
(3) When a provisional or temporary appointee subsequently becomes a probationary employee, the period of service in provisional or temporary status shall be counted toward meeting the probation period required by this section.