Federal Daily - June 18, 2009

Agencies Need to be Better Prepared for a Pandemic, GAO says

In the wake of the H1N1 influenza outbreak, auditors found that most federal agencies are not fully prepared to protect their employees or make sure they can continue mission-critical functions if struck by a pandemic, according to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report. Released June 16, the report looked at the preparedness of the 24 major federal agencies. Most agencies came up short, and some told GAO they were still developing their pandemic plans and measures to protect their workforce, the report said. Specifically, GAO looked at agencies that perform essential occupational functions, other than first response, that cannot be performed remotely. An examination of three case-study occupations—correctional workers, production staff who disburse federal checks, and air traffic controllers—turned up differences in how well agencies were prepared, the report said. The Bureau of Prisons has considerable experience limiting the spread of infectious disease within its correctional facilities and had made arrangements for antiviral medications for a portion of its workers and inmates. On the other hand, air traffic control management facilities, where air traffic controllers work, had not yet developed facility pandemic plans. The Federal Aviation Administration has recently completed a study which showed that the long-term use of respirators by air traffic controllers appeared impractical. On a broader scale, GAO noted that there is no overarching mechanism in place to monitor and report on agencies’ progress in developing workforce pandemic plans, the report said. “As we were recently reminded by the spring 2009 outbreak of the H1N1 virus, an influenza pandemic remains a real threat to our nation and the world and has the potential to shut down work critical to the smooth functioning of our society,” the report said. To see more, go to: www.gao.gov/new.items/d09783t.pdf.

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Half of VA Facilities Fail Endoscopic Equipment Inspections

More than half of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities visited by inspectors failed to show that employees knew about and followed proper procedures in cleaning and reprocessing endoscopic equipment, according to a VA Inspector General (IG) report. Released June 16, the report said that of 42 randomly selected VA facilities which underwent the surprise visits, 22 failed to show that employees were familiar with, and adherent to, proper equipment cleaning and reprocessing procedures. The IG conducted the unannounced inspections after VA in April announced it had sent notifications to 10,555 veterans warning them they may have been exposed to diseases after undergoing endoscopies with improperly reprocessed equipment at three VA sites in Tennessee, Georgia and South Florida. In some cases, equipment was reprocessed at the end of the day, rather than between patients, as required by the manufacturers. Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., ranking member of the House Veterans Affairs Oversight subcommittee, demanded that VA immediately improve employee training and implement more stringent procedures. Roe, along with panel Chairman Harry Mitchell, D-Ariz., called on the IG to perform a follow-up audit within 90 days. “These numbers are alarming and unacceptable,” said Roe. “I am appalled that months after this issue first came to light, more than half of the sites visited were still not compliant with safety procedures.” To see more, go to: http://republicans.veterans.house.gov/news/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=1778 or www.va.gov/oig/54/reports/VAOIG-09-01784-146.pdf.

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Lawmakers Seek to Reestablish National Partnership Council

Three lawmakers on June 16 asked President Obama to reestablish the National Partnership Council—set up by the Clinton administration in 1993—to improve collaboration between union leaders and federal agency managers. The letter, signed by Rep. Edolphus Towns, D-N.Y., Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., and Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., asked Obama to issue an executive order reestablishing the federal labor-management partnership, which operated until it was ended by the Bush administration in early 2001. “The National Partnership Council can help reestablish the labor-management cooperation that is essential to help assure the smooth functioning of vital federal agencies,” Norton said. Labor leaders applauded the move. “The idea is that a mechanism be established by which employees’ voices can be heard in a non-adversarial forum where everyone retains their rights, and where the objective is raising and talking through ideas that address ways to reach common goals,” said National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) President Colleen M. Kelley. To see more, go to: www.nteu.org/PressKits/PressRelease/PressRelease.aspx?ID=1448 or www.norton.house.gov/index.php?option=com_
content&task=view&id=1188&Itemid=88.

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