8-1. SUMMARY
This subchapter
explains agency authority to detail competitive and excepted service employees.
(Details
of Senior Executive Service appointees and details of other employees to
SES positions
are explained
in FPM Supplement 920-1, subchapter S5.)
8-2. AUTHORITIES
a. Office
of
Personnel Management (OPM) sets the policy on details to competitive
and excepted
positions within an agency under 5 U.S.C. 3341, based on its responsibilities
for administering the
laws on the competitive service and the classification of positions.
b. Agencies
may
detail employees to:
-Competitive and excepted positions within an agency (intraagency details)
following 5
U.S.C. 3341 and this subchapter;
-Competitive and excepted positions in other agencies (interagency details)
following
section 601 of 31 U.S.C. 1535 and other applicable statutes;
-Certain executive positions following 5 U.S.C.
3345-3349;
-International organizations following 5
U.S.C. 3343 and FPM Chapter 352;
-Foreign Governments following 22 U.S.C.
2387, administered by the State Department;
and
-NonFederal organizations following the
Intergovernmental Personnel Act, 5 U.S.C.
3371-3376, and FPM Chapter 334.
c. General
Accounting Office (GAO) exercises oversight responsibility for agency
use of
appropriated funds and, in this capacity, determines under what conditions
nonreimbursable
details may be made. See section 8-6.
8-3.
DEFINITION AND PURPOSE OF
DETAILS
a. A detail
is the temporary assignment of an employee to a different position or set
of duties for a
specified period of time. There is no formal posi tion change; officially,
the employee continues to
hold the position from which detailed and keeps the same status and pay.
b. An employee
who continues to carry out the duties of the position to which permanently
as signed
and also performs some of the duties of another position for a limited
time (e.g., while the other
position is vacant or the incumbent is on leave) generally is not considered
to be on a detail.
Performance of other duties on regular basis may, however, require classification
action.
c. Agencies
may detail employees for any legiti mate management purpose, for example,
to handle
unexpected workloads or special projects; to fill in during another employee's
absence; for training;
or pending position classification, security clearance or investigation.
8-4.
PERMISSIBLE INTRAAGENCY
DETAILS
Subject to sections 8-5, 8-6, 8-7, and 8-8, employees, by appointment type,
may be detailed to
other positions as follows:
a. Career and career-conditional employees: to competitive or excepted positions.
b. TAPER employ.ees (temporary appointment pending establishment of a register):
to competitive
or excepted positions.
c. Schedule A or B employees: to competitive or excepted positions.
d. VRA (Veterans Readjustment Act) appoint ees: to competitive or excepted positions.
e. Excepted service employees (other than those covered by paragraphs c
and d above): to
excepted positions. They may be detailed to positions in the competitive
service but only
under delegated agreement with OPM or with OPM's prior approval. This approval
is required
for interagency and intraagency details; see Civil Service Rule 6.5.
f. Employees in status quo: to competitive or excepted positions.
g. Term and temporary employees: to competitive or excepted positions.
A term employee may
be detailed only to a position appropriate for term employment; a temporary
employee may be
detailed only to a position appropriate for temporary employment. See FPM
Chapter 3 16.
A detail does not extend the expiration date of a term or temporary appointment.
8-5.
TIME LIMITS ON INTRAAGENCY
DETAILS
a. Agencies should keep details within the shortest practicable time limits
and should make continuing
efforts to secure necessary services by ap propriate personnel actions.
Supervisors should be advised
of the conditions and limits on details.
b. Time limits in this section apply to intraagency details of
-competitive service employees,
-excepted service employees to competitive service positions, and
-excepted service employees in General Schedule (including "GM")
positions to excepted service positions.
See section 8-6 for information on when time limits apply to-interagency
details.
c. Initial details and extensions. Agencies may make initial details for
up to 120 calendar days.
Details may be extended in increments up to 120 days, subject to the maximum
calendar
time limits in paragraph d.
d. Maximum time limits.
-Agencies may make and extend details of employees to unclassified duties,
and to positions at the
same, lower, or higher grade (except SES) in 12O-day increments, up to
a maximum of 1 year.
Exception:
The maximum is 2 years for details to positions in an
organization undergoing a commercial
activity study as de fined in paragraph i.
-See FPM Supplement 920-1, subchapter S5
for information on details of non-SES employees to SES positions.
e. Unclassified
duties. For the purposes of this section, a "classified position" has a
written state ment of
duties to which an appropriate classiflcation authority has assigned a
grade level; the position may or
may not have been officially established.
If a set of duties is later classified, time under a detail to the unclassified
duties counts toward the
maximum time limits in this section, but not toward the maximum period
in FPM Chapter 335 for
non competitive details to higher grade positions.
f. Overly long details. Agencies should be especially careful to
keep
details to higher grades within
time limits. Employees generally have no right to retroactive temporary
promotions for details
exceeding the time limits in this section. Exceptions occur when an agency
regulation or collective
bargaining agreement establishes the right to a temporary promotion. [Wilson
v. United
tates, 229 Ct. Cl. 510 (1981) and 61 Comp. Gen. 408 (1982).]
g. Requests for extensions beyond maximum time limits. Send requests for
extensions beyond the
maximum time limits to the servicing OPM offtice. Exception: When
SES appointees or positions
are involved, send requests to the Director, Office of Executive Personnel,
1900 E Street, NW.,
Washington, DC 20415. NOTE: OPM approval is also required for an agency
to detail an employee
back to a position to which he or she had been detailed (for the maximum
time period) within the
previous 30 days.
h.
Computing time limits. Although a new time limit applies each time an employee
is detailed to a
different position, agencies should not routinely keep employees on detail
for long periods.
When an employee's service on detail will extend beyond a year, the agency
should review
the situation to see if other action, based on the reasons for the detail,
would be more
appropriate.
i. Commercial
activity study means a review under OMB Circular A-76 of an agency
activity I that
could be performed under contract. The results of the review are used to
create the most efficient
organization and to compare proposals from contractors.
8-6. REIMBURSABLE AND NONREIMBURSABLE DETAILS
a. General
rule. A Comptroller General's decision (64 Comp. Gen. 370, March 20, 1985)
holds that
in the absence of a specific statute
authorizing
nonreimbursable details, all details within an agency
(intraagency details) and all details between agencies (interagency details)
must be made on a
reimbursable basis except in the limited circumstances described in this
section. Where a
reimbursable detail is not required by the Comptroller
General, the organizations involved decide whether the detail should be reimbursable or nonreimbursable.
b. Intraagency details. All intraagency details must be reimbursable except when the detail is:
(1) To a position covered by the same appropriation as the position from which detailed;
(2) To
a position covered by a different appropriation but the detail
involves a matter related
to the loaning organization's appropriation and will aid it in accomplishing
the purpose for
which appropriations are provided; or
(3)
To a position covered by a different appropriation but, regardless
of the purpose of the appro
priation, the detail will have a negligible impact on the loaning organization's
appropriation.
(The GAO decision makes all details based on negligible impact subject
to the time limits in
5 U.S.C. 3341 and this subchapter.)
c. Interagency details. All interagency details must be reimbursable except when the detail:
(1) Involves a matter related to the loaning agency's appropriation and
will aid it in accomplishing
the purpose for which appropriations are provided; or
(2) Will have a negligible impact on the loaning agency's appropriation.
The GAO decision makes
all details based on negligible impact subject to the time limits in this
subchapter.
d. Details to congressional committees. According
to the GAO decision, details to congressional
committees made on a nonreimbursable basis because of negligible impact
are subject to the
time limits in this subchapter.
e. Written agreements. Written agreements be tween agencies and between
components of a single
agency are required for reimbursable details subject to the GAO decision.
See 31 U.S.C. 1535.
8-7. DOCUMENTATION OF DETAILS
a. Intraagency Details.
(1) Agencies
must use an
SF 52, Request for Personnel Action, (or an SF 50, Notiflca tion of Personnel
Action, at the agency's option) to document as a permanent record in the
Official Personnel Folder:
-details for more than 30 days to a higher grade position or to a position
with more promotion potential,
and
-all other details for 120 days or more.
(2)
Exception. An SF 52 is not required for a detail to a position
identical to the employee's current position
or one with the same grade, series, and basic duties as the employee's
current position.
(3) Details
for which an SF 52 is not required are still subject to the time limits
in this subchapter. Agencies must
still keep track of such details in order to know when to proc ess a 120-day
extension and when the maximum
time limit has been reached.
b.
Interagency Details. Agencies should document interagency details in the
employee's Official Personnel Folder
by filing a copy of the agreement with the borrowing agency or a completed
SF 52.
8-8. REPORTS TO CONGRESS ON INTERAGENCY DETAILS
The Treasury,
Postal Service and General Gov ernment Appropriations Act, requires Executive
agencies to report
annually
to the Senate and House Committees on Appropriations on employ ees or members
of the armed services
detailed
to other agencies. The report requirements are in the law, which is set
out as a note preceding section 3341
in title
5 of the annotated U.S. Code (available in most Government libraries).
8-9. RELATED POLICIES
a. The
time-after-competitive-appointment restriction applies to details of employees.
See FPM Chapter 300, subchapter 5.
b. Qualifications
Standards. OPM's qualiflca tion standards, other than those involving minimum
educational
requirements, are not mandatory for details. However, if an agency details
an em ployee subject to merit
promotion procedures, it must apply the same standards to all applicants.
c. Crediting
Details for Qualifications Purposes. The General Policies and Instructions
for the Qualifications
Standards Handbook provide that the experience of employees on detail is
credited as an extension of the
work the employee was doing immediately prior to the detail, or on its
own merits,
whichever is more
beneficial to the employee.
d. Time-in-grade
requirements. Service while on detail is credited for time-in-grade purposes
at the grade
of the position the employee officially holds.
e. Competition.
Although agencies may make intraagency details of employees to higher graded
positions or
positions with more promotion poten tial for a maximum of 1 year, competition
under FPM Chapter 335
is required for certain details. See FPM Chapter 335 for time limits.
f. Performance
appraisals for detailees. See 5 C.F.R. 430 and 432 and related FPM material.