The convergence of two reasonable ideas is likely to hamper the Maine Revenue Service’s ability to hire the best qualified applicants for as many as 20 new positions created in this year’s budget, and may lead to unnecessarily high salaries for some workers.

The Maine Revenue Service is in the process of hiring 20 new revenue agents. The goal behind the expansion is to improve enforcement of the state’s tax laws – and add an estimated $5 million to the General Fund in the first year.

The hiring already has begun for some of the positions, and interviews for others will begin in the next few weeks.

But the system is flawed and at least one last-minute fix is being rushed in to make it better.

While the Revenue Service is trying to lure workers from the private sector with better pay, the screening process builds in an advantage for people already working for the government.

Hiring works like this: An application is submitted to the Maine Bureau of Human Resources, where it is scored based on education, work experience and years of government service, and entered onto a registry of applicants. The applicants with the six highest scores are then forwarded to the specific department looking to fill a job, in this case the Revenue Service. Interviews are conducted and the jobs are filled.

Government service can often trump specific skills, education and training. Current government workers are given preference over applicants from the outside.

One real-life example: A person with a bachelor’s degree who is nearing completion of a master’s degree and has five years’ accounting experience receives a score of 78 when applying for the job of revenue agent.

A second person, with a two-year nursing degree and five years’ experience working in customer service as a tax examiner at the Maine Revenue Service, scores a 95. That’s with no specific accounting experience, business experience or investigative training.

A trained nurse receives a higher score than a trained accountant for a job enforcing the state’s tax laws. Despite the first person’s qualifications, a 78 is unlikely to make the top of the registry for advancement to the interview stage. The 95 is near the top.

It’s possible to get past the first six names handed over by the Bureau of Human Resources, but it’s not easy. A hiring supervisor must justify why the first six names are not adequate and defend the decision to HR and the unions representing government employees. Few bother and those who do aren’t always successful.

“We don’t just look at scores,” said Christina Ward, the tax division assistant director who has been involved in hiring tax examiners for about 10 years. “It’s really the candidate’s entire package … job performance, reference checks, education. It’s really a comprehensive process.”

But access depends on the initial score by human resources. Qualified applicants with low scores – beaten out by those given preference because they already work for the government – aren’t likely to be passed along.

In the past, the state gave civil service exams to evaluate applicants. As recently as 1993, new hires had to start as tax examiners and work up to revenue agents and there was an absolute requirement for a bachelor’s degree. All that stopped.

Until now.

A hastily organized accounting quiz is being created for applicants for revenue agent positions.

“This is the first time for a quiz,” Ward said. “I understand the plan is to ask some questions to make sure people can do the work.”

In addition to the flaws in the evaluation process, new hires in the agency are paid better than other state workers, making the Revenue Service an attractive target for transfers.

The Maine Revenue Service offers a 10 percent stipend for its employees. New employees receive the stipend above the normal pay grade for similar positions in other state agencies.

The stipend was put in place to help the MRS compete for highly skilled applicants, who might be able to earn higher pay in the private sector.

“Demand (for accountants) has grown, but the supply has diminished,” said Gerome Gerard, acting executive director of the Maine Revenue Service. “We’re competing along with accounting firms and business and that had become difficult. So the stipend was needed.”

It’s not clear that’s still true.

Gerard said there had been about 50 applicants for the new Revenue Service jobs as of mid-August. For the technical positions that require more education and experience – tax analyst and principal revenue agent, for example – there were seven or eight applications. More for jobs like revenue agent or tax examiner.

Salaries for the new hires range from $35,000 to $45,000, depending on exact job description and required skill set.

Many – if not most – applications are coming from within the government. Because scoring by human resources excludes most recent grads and builds in an advantage for current government employees, the stipend is not accomplishing it’s goal of making the department more attractive to highly skilled, private sector workers.

Instead, it’s often an unneeded salary bonus for government workers who are able to transfer into the Revenue Service.

Gerard said he did not know how many of the applicants for the new jobs were already working for the government.

Ward also couldn’t say for sure how the numbers break down, but said she would guess a majority of the applications are coming from within government.

Calls to Donald Wills, the director of the Bureau of Human Resources, were not returned.

“I believe we do a good job of making sure we screen candidates and the best people for the job,” Ward said. “I don’t believe qualified applicants are shielded out.”