The National Performance Review recommended that the Office of Personnel
Management (OPM) replace its central inventories with a new hiring process to
give agencies more flexibility in hiring candidates for their vacancies.
Consequently, OPM revised the ACWA examining process, effective 20 Nov 94.
Rather than maintain central inventories, OPM Service Centers will examine
locally for ACWA positions on a case-by-case basis. These changes do not
eliminate the Outstanding Scholar, Bilingual, or Bicultural special appointing authorities.
Army's 5 CONUS CPOCs were granted authority to examine using ACWA by OSD
on December 30, 2002.
Details on the Outstanding Scholar provisions can be found on the Office of Personnel Management Home Page. You can quickly access this by clicking on the index, go to the alphabet and click on letter "O".
Department of Defense temporarily suspended use of the Outstanding Scholar Appointing Authority on December 23, 2005, pending the outcome of a reclama by the Office of Personnel Management to the Merit Systems Protection Board.