1. Vacancies in the lowest class or grade of the classified service of a
customs district shall be filled in the following manner:
(_a_) The nominating officer in any office in which a vacancy may
exist shall, in form and manner to be prescribed by the Commission,
request the board of examiners to certify to him the names of either
males or females eligible to the vacant place.
(_b_) If fitness for the place to be filled is tested by
competitive examination, the board of examiners shall certify the names
of three males or three females, these names to be those of the
eligibles who, standing higher in grade than any other three eligibles
of the same sex on the register from which certification is to be made,
have not been certified three times from said register: _Provided_,
That if upon said register there are the names of eligibles who, under
section 1754 of the Revised Statutes, have claim of preference in civil
appointments, the names of such eligibles shall be certified before the
names of other eligibles higher in grade. The Commission shall make
regulations that will secure to each of such preference-claiming
eligibles, in the order of his grade among other preference claimants,
an opportunity to have his claim of preference considered and determined
by the appointing officer.
(_c_) Each name on a register of eligibles may be certified only
three times: _Provided_, That when a name has been three times
certified, if there are not three names on the register of higher grade,
it may, upon the written request of a nominating officer to whom it has
not been certified, be included in any certification made to said
officer.
2. Of the three names certified the nominating officer must select one;
and if at the time of making this selection there are more vacancies
than one, he may select more than one name. Each person thus designated
for appointment shall be notified, and upon reporting in person to the
proper officer shall be appointed for a probational period of six
months, at the end of which period, if his conduct and capacity be
satisfactory to the nominating officer, he shall receive absolute
appointment; but if his conduct and capacity be not satisfactory to said
officer, he shall be notified that he will not receive absolute
appointment, and this notification shall discharge him from the service.
3. Every nominating officer in the classified customs service shall
require the officer under whom a probationer may be serving to carefully
observe and report in writing the services rendered by and the character
and qualifications of such probationer. These reports shall be preserved
on file, and the Commission may prescribe the form and manner in which
they shall be made.
4. All other vacancies, unless among the places excepted from
examination, shall be filled by transfer or promotion.