Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO assessed whether the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had sufficient resources to meet its current and future responsibilities, focusing on its: (1) staffing requirements and staff recruitment and retention rates; and (2) laboratory, space, and equipment needs.
GAO found that: (1) new legislation, public health crises, and product tampering incidents have significantly increased FDA responsibilities, but its staffing level has declined 7.5 percent since 1980; (2) although FDA estimated that it would need more than 2,000 positions to replace those lost and to handle its increased responsibilities, the administration's fiscal year 1990 budget called for an FDA staffing level of about 1,800 less than those needs; (3) FDA lacked the uniformity in its internal management information systems to substantiate its staffing needs; (4) although FDA studied how to use its declining resources more efficiently and effectively, it neither assessed all of its activities to determine what to accomplish with its limited resources, considered shifting work to other agencies or industry to accomplish it mandates, nor identified activities no longer needed; (5) FDA also had difficulties in filling senior-level positions because of pay and fringe benefits, inadequate office and laboratory space, and the high cost of living in the Washington, D.C., area; (6) FDA headquarters offices and laboratories, located in 23 facilities, were decentralized and dispersed across 7 sites throughout the Washington, D.C., area, and had inadequate electrical, heating and cooling, and waste disposal systems; (7) office space for staff at all levels was far below the amount prescribed in General Service Administration (GSA) standards and was so cramped in some cases that staff could only partially open some doors; (8) FDA and GSA both agreed that FDA needed to consolidate its activities in one location, which would cost between $447 million and $477 million, depending on the buildings already present at the chosen site; and (9) based on government equipment replacement criteria, FDA should have replaced 29 percent of its scientific equipment.
