[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 42, Volume 1]
[Revised as of October 1, 2002]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 42CFR21.46]

[Page 80]
 
                         TITLE 42--PUBLIC HEALTH
 
    CHAPTER I--PUBLIC HEALTH SERVICE, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN 
                                SERVICES
 
PART 21--COMMISSIONED OFFICERS--Table of Contents
 
                         Subpart B--Appointment
 
Sec. 21.46  Merit roll.

    Each board appointed pursuant to Sec. 21.30 to consider the 
qualifications of candidates for appointment as officers shall assign a 
numerical rating to each candidate for appointment in the Regular Corps 
who passes the examination, and shall submit a report to the Surgeon 
General of the ratings and the relative standing of all such candidates 
for each grade in each profession or specialty within a profession. The 
Surgeon General shall submit each such report with his recommendations 
to the Secretary, and, if approved by the Secretary, the report shall 
constitute a merit roll from which the Secretary shall, in accordance 
with relative standing, recommend available persons to the President for 
nomination as commissioned officers of the Regular Corps. A board may 
consider any newly discovered evidence relating to the physical, 
professional, or personal qualifications of any candidate examined for 
appointment. Upon recommendation of such board after review of such 
evidence, the Surgeon General, with the approval of the Secretary, may 
correct the rating of a candidate or may qualify or disqualify a 
candidate. The placing of a candidate's name on a merit roll shall give 
no assurance of an appointment. A merit roll shall expire when a new 
merit roll in the same profession or specialty within a profession and 
grade has been established, but no merit roll shall continue in effect 
longer than two years after its approval by the Secretary. Every 
candidate who has not been nominated by the President for appointment 
prior to the expiration of a merit roll on which his name appears, 
shall, unless he requests the opportunity to be reexamined, be rated 
with the next group of candidates of the same profession or specialty 
within a profession for appointment in the same grade and shall be given 
the same rating he had on the expired merit roll. If two candidates who 
were examined at the same time receive the same numerical rating the 
elder candidate shall assume relative standing on the merit roll over 
the younger candidate. If a candidate whose name is being transferred 
from an expired to a new merit roll has the same numerical rating as a 
candidate whose name is being placed on the new merit roll for the first 
time, the former shall assume relative standing on the merit roll over 
the latter. The name of a candidate may be removed from a merit roll in 
the event that he refuses an appointment when offered. No candidate's 
eligibility for appointment shall exceed two years unless he again 
becomes eligible as the result of another examination.

[21 FR 9806, Dec. 12, 1956, as amended at 24 FR 1790, Mar. 12, 1959]