Food and Drug Administration: 2009 FDA Managers Survey on Performance and Management Issues (GAO-10-280SP, February 2010), an E-supplement to GAO-10-279

Background

This e-publication supplements our report, GAO-10-279, by presenting the item-by-item results of our Web-based survey of Food and Drug Administration (FDA) managers, which was conducted between June and August, 2009.

The purpose of the survey was to obtain the observations and perceptions of respondents on the following two topics: (1) results-oriented management, including the presence and use of performance measures, hindrances to measuring performance and using performance information, and agency climate, and (2) management challenges and priorities at FDA. The questionnaire was administered to a stratified random probability sample of 437 persons from a population of 1,276 FDA managers drawn from data provided by the agency in May 2009. The overall survey results are generalizable to the full population of FDA managers. Our sample also allows us to generalize results for managers in the following three smaller groupings at FDA: (1) the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (CFSAN); (2) the Office of Regulatory Affairs (ORA); and (3) the medical product centers, comprised of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER), the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER), and the Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH).

More than 300 respondents, or about 70 percent of our sample, completed the questionnaire. The response rate across the eight FDA centers and offices we surveyed ranged from 58 percent to 83 percent. The responses of each eligible sample member who provided us with a usable questionnaire were weighted in the analyses to account statistically for all members of the population. This e-publication presents the weighted survey percentages for all FDA managers and for the three smaller groupings at FDA. All weighted percentage estimates have a margin of error of 10 percentage points or less. We did not include data on demographic questions or on open-ended questions to preserve respondent confidentiality. See the report referenced above for a more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology as well as a discussion of survey results.

We conducted our work in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.

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