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NIH Will Review Contractor's Work On Chemical's Risk
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"Every chemical where Sciences International was the lead organization, all those need to be reopened," he said. "We need to look at which ones present the greatest health risk and whether a potential conflict of interest might have affected the science."
Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has begun an investigation into the work the company performed for the government. A committee staffer said Waxman wants an independent review of Sciences International's work on other chemicals to determine whether the contractor had conflicts of interest and, if so, whether the conflicts affected the federal work.
Since 1998, Sciences International has been working for the Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction, a tiny federal agency charged with assessing potential dangers to reproduction and newborns.
The company was in the fourth year of a five-year, $5 million contract. The agency has two federal employees; Sciences International supplied the rest of its workforce.
Wiles said the situation points to a larger problem of the federal government delegating too much authority to private contractors.
"There's no substitute for a government scientist who's insulated largely from political pressures when they're making these decisions," he said. "There are certain jobs you can't farm out to contractors."
The federal contract represented about half of Sciences International's income, and the company will be forced to lay off employees, Gibb said. He said it is unclear whether the company has legal grounds to challenge its dismissal.
