Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala Tuesday said she has instructed the chief financial officer of the department to review and certify all expenditures and reporting of the National Center for Infectious Diseases-in an effort to restore Congress' faith in the center after stories surfaced that it had not reported a diversion of money earmarked for combating the hantavirus.
"We have zero tolerance for inaccurate reporting and inaccurate statements," Shalala told the House Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee.
The Washington Post reported earlier this month that the NCID, which is part of the Centers for Disease Control, diverted money earmarked to address the hantavirus pulmonary syndrome-a deadly disease that causes fluid to build up in the lungs of healthy young adults-to combat other diseases, and failed to tell Congress about it.
"We don't object to the fact that the money was spent, we object to not being informed," said Labor-HHS Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman John Edward Porter, R-Ill.
Shalala said HHS is planning to work with CDC Director Jeffrey Koplan to ensure that all senior managers at the NCID receive certified budget training to ensure proper reporting in the future. "This is the equivalent of a 'stand down' in the military," Shalala said, in that no personnel will be allowed to move up without this training.
The CDC also has explored the option of whether to hire an independent auditor, Shalala said.
Koplan is expected to provide more detail on what actions the CDC is taking to correct the reporting problem at a future hearing before the subcommittee. A hearing on the hantavirus reporting errors scheduled for Wednesday has been postponed because many members of Congress will be attending the funeral of former House Speaker Carl Albert.
In a statement released last Wednesday, Koplan apologized to Congress for the errors and said the CDC has since learned "valuable lessons following the Inspector General review of its budget procedures. The IG review, requested by CDC, provided a checklist of improvements needed to help CDC catch up with the demands of an increasingly complex budget and reconcile it with the flexibility required by fast-changing public health challenges."
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