What is the difference between a competitive and noncompetitive referral?
There are two types of competitive referrals: Delegated Examining and merit promotion (which include applicants under the Veterans Employment Opportunities Act (VEOA)). They are called competitive referrals because the applicants compete to be amongst those referred. A crediting plan is used to assess points and then those points are transmuted (a value table equates points to a percentage score) into scores. Depending on the score received an applicant may or may not be among the best qualified to be referred. DEU applicants generally are referred in score order, however on occasion, compensably disabled veterans float to the top of the certificate regardless of their score. Merit promotion candidates are referred in alphabetical order. Non-competitive referrals may include applicants who currently hold or have held in the past the same grade of the position being filled (reassignments/transfers, change to lower grade and reinstatements), Veterans Readjustment Act applicants, 30% disa
