Report may serve short-term (9)
I believe the answer is:
temporary
'short-term' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'report may serve' is the wordplay.
'serve' is an anagram indicator (I've seen 'served' mean this).
'report'+'may'='reportmay'
'reportmay' with letters rearranged gives 'TEMPORARY'.
(Other definitions for temporary that I've seen before include "Impermanent" , "Portray me as being for a limited time only" , "here today, gone tomorrow" , "Not for long" , "Lasting for a limited period" .)