FDA’s $1.5 Million Morale Contract Draws U.S. Lawmaker Scrutiny
By Justin Blum
Bloomberg
December 12, 2008
Dec. 12 (Bloomberg) -- A $1.5 million contract between the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a California firm to improve morale at the agency’s drug division faces scrutiny from lawmakers who questioned whether the company’s plan will work.
The FDA awarded the two-year contract to the Center for Professional Development in Oakland, according to a statement today from Republican Representatives Joe Barton of Texas and John Shimkus of Illinois.
One of the consultants for the center “works with the metaphor of colour, symbol, dance and story to help people give meaning to their lives and work,” the lawmakers said, quoting from the group’s Web site.
The FDA announced the contract in October 2007 “to improve workplace leadership, empower staff and establish more effective business practices,” according to an agency statement at the time. The FDA has been under criticism from members of Congress, who say the agency has approved unsafe drugs and hasn’t done enough to protect people from tainted imports of food and drugs.
“We are very concerned about the lack of any justifiable metrics for measuring contract success,” Barton and Shimkus said in a letter to the FDA commissioner, Andrew von Eschenbach.
Barton is the top Republican on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the FDA, and Shimkus is the top Republican on the panel’s investigative subcommittee.
The FDA won’t comment and will respond directly to the lawmakers, said Heidi Rebello, an agency spokeswoman, in an e-mail.
To contact the reporter on this story: Justin Blum in Washington at jblum4@bloomberg.net.
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