Department of Natural Resources Policy -
Short-term Employment Contract
Policy Number:     94:08
Effective Date:     March 1, 1994 (Reviewed: May 2003)
See signed policy - Adobe Acrobat file
I. Purpose
The purpose of this policy is to define consistent and expeditious procedures for the hiring of employees under short-term employment status. Functions covered by the policy include the assignment of administrative and review responsibilities; and, standardization of forms.

II. Scope
A short-term employee is one who is hired within the state of Maryland, department of budget management, office of human resources guidelines as stated in code of Maryland regulations (comar). The employee shall not be hired for a term to exceed a ten (10) month period without express permission of the approval authority.

III. Policy
To accommodate the demands placed on the department’s labor force as a result of its cyclical operations, the department has established a recruitment process to effectuate the timely hiring of short-term employees.

IV. Procedure
The following are procedures for maintaining inventory.

A. Unit Administration

  1. Obtain approval for contractual hiring from program/unit director.

  2. Determine recruitment methodology including equal employment opportunity participation.

  3. Prepare Short-term Employment Contract agreement and other forms as identified for contractual hiring.

  4. Certify candidate meets minimum qualifications of equivalent State Classification.

  5. Serve as repository for filing of all employment records.

  6. Provide sufficient lead-time for processing to ensure the contract is in effect prior to work commencing.

  7. Ensure adequate internal controls exist over the hiring and payment of contractual employees by 1.) segregating the hiring responsibility from the payroll processing responsibilities and 2.) periodically verifying the propriety of employees on the special payments payroll.

  8. Prepare and timely submit contract “Cut-Off” form.

  9. Due to the length of short term employment, employees hired under this contract do not have the privilege of direct deposit.

B. Procurement Office

  1. Review forms for completeness, accuracy and inclusion of appropriate documents and copies.

  2. Execute Central Payroll Bureau form 311T and Short- term Contract as “Agency Head”.

  3. 3. Distribute original and copies of documents to DNR Payroll, Central Payroll Bureau and the hiring agency respectively.

  4. Provide assistance, direction and guidance to the units on a regular and continuing basis in regard to completion of employment documents.

C. Procedures

  1. Unit shall complete all documents applicable to the contractual hiring and forward the appropriate number of copies to the DNR Procurement Office.

  2. The Procurement Office shall review all forms for accuracy and completeness and distribute.

  3. All payroll and employment records with the Exception of the I-9 form must be retained for a period of three (3) years from the date of the last Legislative audit.

    The I-9 form and attachments must be retained for a period of three (3) years from the date of hiring; or one (1) year after the date the employment is terminated; whichever is later.

  4. The location manager, or his/her designee must sign the employment agreement. Further, this individual must be independent of any payroll processing responsibility (e.g. signing time cards).

  5. The location manager, or his/her designee, must Periodically review the Detail of Expenditures report to verify that only bona fide employees appear on the special payments payroll. Further, the location manager must initial the report and retain it for further audit purposes.

Posted February 12, 2004