United States

Office of Personnel Management

Office of Merit Systems Oversight and Effectiveness

Digest of Significant Classification Decisions and Opinions

January 1987

No. 09-01

Standard:	Financial Management Series, GS-0505 (June 1963)

Factor:	Series coverage

Issue:	Implicit series coverage criteria

Identification of the Classification Issue

This issue arose in an Office of Personnel Management region's consideration of an appeal from an individual employed as a Fiscal Officer, GS-0501-11, who believed that the duties and responsibilities of his position warranted reclassification of the position to the Financial Management Series, GS-0505. The appellant was the head of his installation's financial organization and responsible for the performance and supervision of a variety of budget, accounting, and financial services for his installation. The issue was whether the installation's activities were of sufficient size, scope, and complexity for the appellant's position to be included in the Financial Management Series.

Resolution

Implicit in the criteria for the GS-0505 series is the requirement that the organization served be of sufficient size and complexity to allow and require the services characteristic of the series. While there are no explicit minimum size and complexity criteria, the standard contains grade-level criteria that imply the lower limits of work to be included in the series. These are the criteria for the lowest levels of the classification factors.

At Degree C of Subfactor A, Factor I, the operating program served has a significant effect on local industries or industry segments; at Degree C of Subfactor C, financial managers have the authority or opportunity to adapt policies and procedures established by higher echelons to fit local conditions and needs; at Degree C of Subfactor B, Factor II, the financial manager's subordinate organization is divided into several subordinate segments, some of which may be further subdivided.

The appellant's position did not meet these lowest limits for inclusion in the GS-0505 series. The installation did not make regular and significant purchases to meet operating requirements, and the installation did not have a substantial amount of work performed by means of contracts. Therefore, it did not have a significant effect on an industry or industry segments in its local

economy. Limitations on the installation's work activities and on its work scheduling eliminated the need for the appellant to adapt higher-echelon policies and procedures. The standard states that the lack of this authority and the absence of a need to make these adaptations makes inclusion in the series questionable. Finally, the appellant's subordinate organization was smaller and simpler than envisioned by the standard, and the financial services provided were not so broad and complex as were the services that constituted financial management in the terms of the standard.

As the position was judged not to include responsibility for financial management of the type or scope characteristic of the GS-0505 series, the position was excluded and was classified in the GS-0501 series.