Another Agency's Bonuses Come Under Fire

Last month, I wrote a column about how bonuses for federal executives were attracting increased scrutiny. In just the past few months, top officials from the Veterans Affairs and Education departments to the Government Accountability Office have been called upon to explain awards they've handed out.

Well, the beat goes on with the Washington Post front-page story today about bonuses at the Food and Drug Administration - which quadrupled in four years, to a total of $13.6 million in 2005.

As I wrote in my column, some agencies' bonuses are more defensible than others. At first glance, the FDA situation looks pretty bad, due to several factors:

• The bonuses were supposed to be retention-based, but were awarded to some officials on the basis of merely signing declarations that they were "likely to leave the federal government for a higher paying position in the private sector."
• Large bonuses seem to have gone disproportionately to managers in FDA's Office of the Commissioner, rather than the scientists, inspectors and doctors who would seem to be more likely to command higher salaries in the private sector.
• The bonuses were awarded at time when FDA was enduring some high-profile problems with everything from flu vaccine shortages to a plan to the plan to close field laboratories that was suspended yesterday.