Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) imported food inspection activities, focusing on: (1) how staff responsible for inspecting imported products allocated their time; and (2) areas where FDA could improve operational efficiency.
GAO found that: (1) during an average work week in 1988, 226 FDA district office staff performed import inspection tasks; (2) staff spent an average of 38 percent of their time on paperwork processing, 13 percent on travel to and from inspection sites, and 22 percent on physical inspections; (3) district offices varied widely in time spent on tasks, with travel ranging from 1 percent to 22 percent of staff time and paperwork ranging from 20 percent to 57 percent of time; (4) some district offices routinely conducted more inspections in less time than other district offices; and (5) FDA has implemented some of the recommendations from three studies it has conducted of its imported food inspection program since 1984. GAO also found that FDA: (1) could develop an automated entry review system similar to one the Customs Service developed to reduce time spent on paperwork; (2) is developing the Import Support and Information System, an automated data-retrieval tracking system which includes an entry review component, but does not expect it to be available for several years; and (3) did not believe that establishing centralized examination facilities similar to those Customs implemented would reduce staff travel time.
