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Baldrige Process Integrity

Multiple safeguards are in place to ensure the integrity of the Baldrige selection process. For example, recommendations for Baldrige Award recipients are made solely by volunteer Baldrige examiners and judges, each of whom signs a pledge to avoid both the reality and appearance of conflicts of interest. The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has detailed procedures regarding assigning examiners and judges to applicants to prevent real and perceived conflicts of interest. Prior to recommending names of Baldrige Award recipients to the Secretary of Commerce, NIST has an added responsibility to perform background checks on all potential recipients and to verify they deserve to receive the award. Applicants selected to receive the award ultimately receive about 1,000 hours of scrutiny from Baldrige examiners and judges.

Members of the Board for the Baldrige Foundation do not participate in the selection of winners in any way. They are not made aware of applicants for the Award by the Baldrige program, examiners, or judges during the evaluation process. Members of the Foundation Board receive the names of the Award recipients through the general press release to the public—after the evaluation process has been completed and recipients are selected. Sometimes, individual applicants self-disclose that they have applied for the award; however, there is no opportunity for Foundation members to become involved in the evaluation process. Furthermore, the Board for the Baldrige Foundation has no oversight role for the Baldrige Program.

 
The Baldrige Board of Overseers, the policy advisory group for the Baldrige Program, met on Dec. 4, 2006 , in a public session and reviewed the applicant evaluation and judges’ selection processes, including the conflict of interest rules. The Overseers voted unanimously to reaffirm that the current selection process is sound and free of conflicts of interest. They also received a report from the chair of the judges’ panel and found that the 2006 selection process abided by these principles.


BNQP Website comments:
nqp@nist.gov

Date created: 12/15/2006
Last updated: 12/15/2006