But NIH Director James Wyngaarden and others feel the policy delivers a devastating blow to morale at an agency already struggling to staunch the flow of top scientists to universities and private industry. And a congressional oversight committee recently took top Health and Human Services Department officials to task for their "grotesquely unfair" actions and their "insensitivity" toward federal workers.
NIH historically has given the highest possible performance rating to a large proportion "as much as 80 percent"of its top administrators and scientists. Two years ago the Office of Personnel Management, in a decision embraced by HHS Secretary Otis Bowen, issued new guidelines to reverse what Bowen has called "rapid grade creep" in the evaluation of federal workers. OPM decided that 35 percent was a more reasonable figure; any agency that planned to classify as outstanding a higher percentage of its senior administrators would need to justify its decision.
The ...
