Federal Docs Lack Whistleblower Protections

WASHINGTON – Thousands of federal doctors and medical researchers who receive some of the highest salaries in government don't enjoy the same protections to blow the whistle on wrongdoing as other civil servants, a judge has ruled.

Administrative Judge Raphael Ben-Ami of the U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board (search) ruled recently that Dr. Jonathan Fishbein, a National Institutes of Health (search) specialist, could not seek the board's protection from firing under the Whistleblower Protection Act.

Fishbein was hired by NIH in 2003 to help improve AIDS (search) research practices. He alleges he is being fired because he uncovered concerns about sloppy research practices that might endanger patient safety.

NIH said he is being fired for poor performance and that the allegations come from a "disgruntled" employee who failed to make his two-year probation period.

Fishbein is a "Title 42" (search) employee and is paid $178,000 a year, slightly more than the $175,700 that members of President Bush's Cabinet receive.

Title 42 of the federal code allows the government to pay research and medical experts as special consultants and give them salaries higher than the civil servant maximums. The law is designed to help the government compete against high-paying private industries.

NIH employs more than 3,959 Title 42 employees and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (search) employs another 200 to 300, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Ben-Ami ruled Nov. 9 that Fishbein was not covered by the Whistleblower Protection Act (search) because he is a Title 42 employee and has "no appeal rights" during his two-year probationary period.

"Title 42 appointments of special consultants are made without regard to the civil service laws" and therefore they aren't permitted to appeal to the Merit Systems Protection Board under the whistleblower law, he ruled. "The board lacks authority to consider the appellants' claims of discrimination or retaliation."

Fishbein's lawyers are appealing to the full board.

The whistleblower protection law was passed more than decade ago to strengthen federal workers' protections when they raise allegations of federal wrongdoing, giving them outlets like the board and the U.S. Office of Special Counsel (search) to seek legal protection.

The National Whistleblower Center (search), a Washington-based group that represents whistleblowers like Fishbein, is urging Congress to fix what it called a "dangerous loophole" that exempts Title 42 workers from whistleblower protections.

"This is a major setback for drug safety," said Kris Kolesnik, the center's executive director. "Many of these employees, such as Dr. Fishbein, hold sensitive health and safety related positions. Without protections, these employees will not blow the whistle."

The Associated Press reported last week that Fishbein was among several NIH employees who raised concerns in 2002 about a study in Africa involving the AIDS drug nevirapine.

Documents showed that the way the research was conducted violated federal patient safety rules and suffered from record-keeping and patient monitoring problems. But the study's general conclusion that the drug could be used safely in single doses to protect babies from HIV was upheld.

Attorney Steve Kohn, who represents Fishbein, said federal agencies like NIH have markedly increased their recruitment and hiring of employees under Title 42 in recent years, leaving an entire class of federal workers without whistleblower protections.

"It's a game of cat and mouse, in which the real losers are the American people," Kohn said.

A House Commerce subcommittee chairman in February raised concerns that NIH was inappropriately using Title 42 hires to pad administrators' salaries to as high as $225,000 a year.

The law should be reserved for "limited scientific hires, not an alternative compensation scheme that permits high-level NIH officials to continue exercising broad-based, inherently governmental functions while being paid significantly higher salaries than if they had remained in the federal civil service system," wrote Rep. Jim Greenwood, R-Pa., who recently retired from Congress.