Federal Career Planning and Development

I work for an excepted service agency. My boss retired several weeks back and I have been thinking about applying for his high grade position. Well, the vacancy posted the other day. While reading the vacancy announcement, I noticed that the description of the duties for the position was grossly inaccurate. I’ve been told the position description is out of date by a person who will be one of the selecting board officials during the hiring action. So the agency is aware that the PD does not describe the correct position description for the job. There are duties in the description that are either outdated or will never worked since the responsibilities have moved to another department and even out of the state. The announcement’s duties do not address nearly 90% of the position’s actual responsibilities.

Can I request and/or “demand” the agency update the position description and have it reclassified? Do they have to cancel the job announcement if the PD is going to be rewritten and are there any OPM rules that govern these situations?

Any recommended courses of action?

I would proceed cautiously. Be prepared for what's already listed on the PD as well as what
"non-verbal" signals the selecting official has provided you. Either way, I would definitely not recommend questioning the PD before you've been selected for the job. If you then get the job, you can begin formulating what the job really entails and then take the proper procedures to address what will then be your own job duties.

Good luck.