PA Auditor General Jack Wagner Praises New Law Requiring Military Veteran on State Civil Service Commission

HARRISBURG, Pa., Oct. 5, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Auditor General Jack Wagner today praised a new state law that requires at least one of the appointed members of the State Civil Service Commission to be a military veteran.

Wagner first recommended that a military veteran serve on the Civil Service Commission in a 2008 audit that criticized the commission's failure to aggressively enforce veterans' preference provisions in the filling of state jobs.

"With more veterans returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan and the unemployment rate among veterans still stubbornly high, having a military veteran on the commission gives veterans a strong voice in the state's civil service system," Wagner said.

The presence of a veteran on the three-member commission is especially important during these tough economic times as the unemployment rate for Pennsylvania veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan is 10.9 percent, which is significantly higher than the state's unemployment rate for non-veterans, Wagner said.

Wagner has been calling for changes to the Civil Service Commission since his November 2008 special performance audit found that the commission was lax in requiring state agencies to give preference to veterans in filling job vacancies. The audit recommended that the commission take steps to require state agencies to consider veterans when filling all job vacancies.

Authority for the Veterans' Preference Program in Pennsylvania is provided by the Military Affairs Act of 1975 and the Pennsylvania Civil Service Law. The program provides that veterans who pass the civil service exam receive 10 additional points on their civil service exam scores and have mandatory hiring preference for civil service employment positions, if the veteran has one of the three highest exam scores for the position being considered.

Wagner initiated his audit after receiving a complaint from a veteran, which alleged that the commonwealth had not been applying veterans' preference in its employment decisions or had been applying the preference in an unsatisfactory manner.

Wagner's auditors found state agencies circumvented veterans' preference requirements by manipulating employment lists to exclude military veterans. As a result, various agencies failed to consider eligible veterans for 569 vacancies. In addition, veterans were denied a chance to secure at least 26 job positions when state agencies varied the county work location. The agencies subsequently made hires from an employment list that did not have a veteran within the top three highest scores, as required by the program.

Wagner's audit of the Veterans' Preference Program recommended that the Civil Service Commission require all agencies to fill positions using lists that included veterans seeking employment with the commonwealth, unless agencies provided written justification for the need to request and fill positions from other types of employment lists. A veteran on the commission will ensure that the civil service system works properly for all of Pennsylvania's veterans, Wagner said.

"Job opportunities for veterans are needed now more than ever with Pennsylvania facing one of the toughest economic times since the Great Depression. It is only right that these brave men and women, who demonstrate personal and professional qualities that any employer should value, are granted the opportunity to gain employment that they have legally earned through their military service," Wagner said.

Auditor General Jack Wagner is responsible for ensuring that all state money is spent legally and properly.  He is the commonwealth's elected independent fiscal watchdog, conducting financial audits, performance audits and special investigations.  The Department of the Auditor General conducts thousands of audits each year.  To learn more about the Department of the Auditor General, taxpayers are encouraged to visit the department's website at www.auditorgen.state.pa.us.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Department of the Auditor General