近年来，美国食品药品管理局（FDA）在被迫增加食品药品安全投入的同时，支付给员工超过八百万美元总额的奖金，以防止员工跳槽到制药公司和其他监管行业。而这一举措正饱受质疑。

      长期以来，FDA在药物评估和审查部门，尤其在卫生官员方面存在严重的人员流失。近几年FDA已经流失了五分之一的药品审查员。管理层认为高薪可以帮助招募新职工，同时有效地防止有经验的职工跳槽到如制药公司、大学、法律部门和其他看重他们工作经验和专业技能的机构任职。

      FDA首席营运官John Dyer说“高薪可以让我们和私营公司竞争人才，同样也可使我们挽留那些打算跳槽和正在跳槽的职工，这样能让员工为我们服务更长时间直到我们找到合适人选来替换他们。”

      预留奖金就是整个报酬激励计划的组成部分，它包括支付给员工的雇佣和再安置报酬。根据人事管理局的规定，在大多数情况下，预留奖金不应超过员工基本工资的四分之一，但对于关键员工，则可以到达基本工资的一半。Dyer表示即使把预留奖金计算在内，员工在FDA赚的钱也比在私营公司赚的钱少10%~20%。

      因此近年来，FDA发放的预留奖金数额逐年上升，2002年，FDA发放了共320万美元的奖金。去年达950万美元，则每位员工可获得五千或五千美元以上，这是2002年的3倍，也高于其他任何联邦机构发放预留奖金的数额。

      根据美国联邦政府人事管理总署（OPM）的最新数据显示，2005年美国联邦政府用于支付预留奖金总额为2160万美元，而卫生福利部用于支付预留奖金的总额已达政府费用的55%，也就是近1190万美元。粗略计算，作为卫生福利部的一个部门，FDA相应地获得了其中的870万美元。超过预留奖金总额的40%。

      于是，在FDA官员们表示发放预留奖金是确保关键员工不向私营企业跳槽的必要措施时，国会评论家们却认为增加在药品和食品安全性方面的资金投入相对更为重要。

      众议院能源和商业委员会监管和调查小组主席Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich讲，“国会在食品安全方面投入了额外的资金，而FDA是怎么用的呢？他们全花在奖金上了。”

      由于发放的奖金总额与明年FDA用于加强食品安全的额外经费相等，预留奖金问题将会成为周二评估FDA保障国家食品安全措施所召开国会听证会的议题。同时，由于国内食源性疾病正在爆发，其中包括数十名幼儿因食用沙门氏菌污染的点心而发病的事件。目前国会已要求对国内食品安全展开详细调查。

摘自：Associated Press
翻译：刘李栋

附原文：

FDA Bonuses Spending to Draw Scrutiny
by Andrew Bridges 07/17/07

      The Food and Drug Administration is giving workers more than $8 million in bonuses to keep them from defecting to pharmaceutical and other regulated industries, at the same time the agency is being pressed to spend more on food and drug safety.
      The retention bonuses, worth $5,000 or more per employee, are triple what it paid in 2002 and more than any other federal agency pays. As recently as 2005, the FDA accounted for more than 40 percent of the overall $21.6 million the government paid in retention bonuses, according to FDA and other government records.
      The retention bonuses are only part of an overall financial incentive program, including recruitment and relocation bonuses paid its employees, that has grown sharply at FDA in recent years. In 2002, the agency gave out just $3.2 million in bonuses worth $5,000 or more. That grew to $9.5 million last year.
FDA officials say the bonuses are necessary to keep vital employees from moving to the private sector; congressional critics say the money would be better spent on improving safety.
      The bonuses are expected to be an issue at a congressional hearing Tuesday to examine the FDA's efforts to protect the nation's food supply, as the total nearly matches the additional amount the agency is spending to strengthen food safety next year. A spate of high-profile outbreaks of foodborne illness, including salmonella-tainted snack foods that sickened dozens of toddlers, has drawn scrutiny from Congress.
      "Congress puts in extra money in for food safety and what does FDA spend it on? Bonuses," said Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the oversight and investigations subcommittee of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
      FDA food safety center employees receive just a fraction of the bonuses - $265,000 overall last year. Instead, employees in the drugs office, where the agency reviews new drugs seeking federal approval, claim the vast majority, or nearly $5.8 million in 2006.
      The FDA has long complained about turnover in its Centers for Drug Evaluation and Review, especially among medical officers. Agency officials contend the incentives help recruit new employees and more importantly encourage veterans from leaving to work for drug companies, universities, law firms and others that value their decades of experience and sought-after technical expertise.
      "It allows us to compete in the private sector and it allows us to hang onto people that are going to leave and go to the private sector - so they stay with us a little longer until we get their replacement ready or hire someone else from the outside," said John Dyer, the FDA's chief operating officer.
      In most cases, retention incentives cannot equal more than a quarter of an employee's base pay, according to the Office of Personnel Management. However, they can equal up to half the base if the need is critical. Dyer said that even with the bonuses, employees earn 10 percent to 20 percent less than what they could get in the private sector.
      In 2005, the most recent year for which data are available, two departments - Defense and Health and Human Services - accounted for $18.5 million of the $21.6 million in retention bonuses paid by the federal government, according to OPM.
      While the Defense Department doled out more of the retention bonuses, HHS paid more overall - an amount equal to nearly 55 percent of the government total, or $11.9 million. The FDA, which is part of HHS, in turn accounted for roughly $8.7 million of that.
      The FDA has been especially generous with its medical officers, including doctors who help the agency review drug applications. The FDA has long lamented its difficulties in keeping its drug reviewers, whom the pharmaceutical industry routinely poaches. In some years, the FDA has lost as many as one in five of its drug reviewers.