The new ombudsman's office at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was once considered critical to fixing the Atlanta-based agency's poor employee morale and distrust of senior leadership.

The office was the cornerstone effort by CDC Director Julie Gerberding to address concerns — by members of Congress and five former agency directors — that the turmoil inside the CDC was putting public health at risk.

Lauren Victoria Burke/Associated Press (ENLARGE)

CDC Director Julie Gerberding created the ombudsman's office to boost morale.

Now the ombudsman's office, created in October 2006, is slated for elimination. It hadn't even yet hired permanent staff.

Some members of Congress consider it a waste of money and have put language in a pending 2008 federal budget bill prohibiting any future funds from going to it.

"I think the proposed congressional action is very unfortunate," said Dr. David Sencer, one of five former CDC directors who have expressed concern about the agency's morale problems. Hiring an ombudsman to help independently address staff concerns was a key recommendation of the former directors.

U.S. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said he inserted language to eliminate the ombudsman's office because it's a waste of taxpayer money.

"My colleagues in Congress agreed with me that CDC doesn't need a morale-boosting CDC ombudsman that costs over $1,000 a day and over $2,500 per employee visit," Coburn said. "This money can be better spent."

Dr. Stephen Thacker, director of the CDC's office of work force and career development, said Thursday he thinks the ombudsman program has been worthwhile. "I think those who have used it will be disappointed," he said, noting that the agency will find other ways to get staff input and resolve issues if the office is eliminated. The agency already has conducted focus groups to help find solutions to problems, he said.

The CDC has 9,000 employees and 5,000 contractors, most of them in metro Atlanta. Various federal work force surveys have shown significant drops in job satisfaction at the CDC since June 2003, after Gerberding became director and launched a massive reorganization of the agency.

The CDC ombudsman's office has been controversial from the start. That's because of the agency's decision to initially hire two contractors from Carter Consulting to serve as temporary ombudsmen on a one-year, $259,000 contract.

The contracting firm drew immediate distrust from some CDC staff who questioned the contractors' independence because the Tucker firm is owned by Joseph Carter, who retired in 2004 after being a top management official in the CDC director's office.

U.S. Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), the ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee who has investigated morale problems at the CDC, said Thursday he's not surprised the "hastily established" office is being eliminated.

"CDC employees said that they did not trust the ombudsmen whom they believe are not truly dedicated to identifying and solving personnel issues at CDC," said Grassley.

That lack of trust, Grassley and others have said, has resulted in few employees seeking help from the office.

The office received 169 visits or inquires from October 2006 through June, the most recent data available.

Jeffrey Levi, executive director of the Trust for America's Health, a Washington-based public health watchdog group, said having an ombudsman office is particularly important in an agency like the CDC that has gone through so much change.

Last January Gerberding announced her intent to hire a full-time employee to replace the contractors.

But none was hired and in September CDC extended the Carter Consulting contract through the end of December for an additional $110,551.

The amount outraged Coburn because, by his calculations, it came to a cost of $1,053 a day for one acting ombudsman: Gerald Naehr.

Thacker said the CDC was in the process of hiring an employee when amendments potentially cutting the office were added to the budget.