The civil service commission was designed to

oversee  merit-based selection for federal civil service employees

Explanation: Hi, The United States Civil Service Commission was a government agency of the federal government of the United States and was created to select employees of federal government on merit rather than relationships.

The work of the commission was mainly restricted to the lower grades of employment, and it was not until the first 20 years of the 20th century that the merit system of recruitment was expanded to cover half the posts in the federal service.