Please leave this field empty
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
  • About
  • Problems
  • Campaigns
  • Impacts
  • Research
  • Contact
Donate Monthly Make a Gift Renew Your Membership Ways to Give
  • facebook
  • twitter
Please leave this field empty
Food & Water Watch Food & Water Watch
$
Menu
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Search
Please leave this field empty
  • facebook
  • twitter

USDA Office of Inspector General Faults FSIS for Poor Implementation of Public Health Information System

Statement of Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter.

  • facebook
  • twitter
  • google-plus
  • envelope

We all need safe food and clean water.

Donate
08.31.15

Washington, D.C.—“The USDA Office of Inspector General’s (OIG) scathing audit of the Food Safety Inspection Service’s (FSIS) Public Health Information System (PHIS) reaffirmed what we’ve been saying about the system for years—that it is rife with deficiencies and will not ensure that the meat and poultry from many plants is safe to eat.

“The OIG criticized FSIS’s inept implementation of the PHIS that was once touted by the agency as a revolutionary tool to enhance public health since it would provide ‘real-time’ inspection data. Instead, the new information technology system has been fraught with problems—issues that were raised by the agency’s own inspection workforce even before the switch was turned on in 2011.

Deficiencies found by the OIG included:

FSIS needs to reassess whether PHIS will actually serve agency needs;

  • PHIS is a web-based IT system, and the agency failed to ensure that there was reliable internet connectivity at the meat and poultry plants where the system was being used;
  • The agency failed to meet timelines on the system’s implementation, and there were severe cost overruns. Costs have ballooned from the initial estimate of $8.7 million to a projected cost of $79.3 million by FY 2018. The White House IT Dashboard projects the total cost to $188.92 million by FY 2024;
  • FSIS inspectors were not properly trained to use the ‘not performed codes’ that need to be used when assigned inspection tasks could not be performed;
  • Former FSIS employees still had access to PHIS;
  • There were no internal checks to determine whether the data entered into PHIS was accurate;
  • The meat and poultry establishment profiles were not accurate, causing inefficiencies where FSIS officials attempted to inspect products that weren’t there.

“When Webster’s Dictionary is revised, there needs to be a new synonym added for the wordboondoggle: PHIS. FSIS’ own inspectors warned their management that the new IT system was not ready for prime time in 2010, yet the agency plowed ahead with its implementation.

“Food & Water Watch has repeatedly warned agency officials and congressional appropriators that the system was fraught with problems. We have even called for the removal of agency officials for their involvement in this fiasco. If there were ever a case for a congressional oversight hearing on waste, fraud, and abuse in government, PHIS would be a prime candidate. This is an agency that is reducing its inspection workforce to implement a reckless privatized inspection system, yet it continues to throw money at a worthless IT system. The priorities are all wrong at FSIS.”

Contact: Kate Fried, Food & Water Watch, (202) 683-4905, kfried(at)fwwatch(dot)org.


Food & Water Watch champions healthy food and clean water for all. We stand up to corporations that put profits before people, and advocate for a democracy that improves people’s lives and protects our environment.

###

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version

Monsanto's Roundup is a "probable human carcinogen." We need to ban it!

Get the latest on your food and water with news, research and urgent actions.

Please leave this field empty

Latest News

  • Trump’s Out, Biden’s In! Now The Fight Of Our Lives On Climate Begins.

    Trump’s Out, Biden’s In! Now The Fight Of Our Lives On Climate Begins.

  • Biden’s 100-Day Must-Do List for a Cleaner, Healthier Country

    Biden’s 100-Day Must-Do List for a Cleaner, Healthier Country

  • Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

    Fracking, Federal Lands, And Follow-Through: Will President Biden Do What He Promised?

See More News & Opinions

For Media: See our latest press releases and statements

Food & Water Insights

Looking for more insights and our latest research?

Visit our policy & research library
  • Renewable Natural Gas: Same Ol' Climate-Polluting Methane, Cleaner-Sounding Name

  • The Case to Ban Fracking on Federal Lands

  • Dangerously Deep: Fracking’s Threat to Human Health

Fracking activist with stickersFracking activist in hatLegal team loves family farmsFood & Water Watch organizer protecting your food

Work locally, make a difference.

Get active in your community.

Food & Water Impact

  • Victories
  • Stories
  • Facts
  • Trump, Here's a Better Use for $25 Billion

  • Here's How We're Going to Build the Clean Energy Revolution

  • How a California Activist Learned to Think Locally

Keep drinking water safe and affordable for everyone.

Take Action
food & water watch logo
en Español

Food & Water Watch mobilizes regular people to build political power to move bold & uncompromised solutions to the most pressing food, water, and climate problems of our time. We work to protect people’s health, communities, and democracy from the growing destructive power of the most powerful economic interests.

Food & Water Watch is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

Food & Water Action is a 501(c)4 organization.

Food & Water Watch Headquarters

1616 P Street, NW,
Washington, DC 20036

Main: 202.683.2500

Contact your regional office.

Work with us: See all job openings

  • Problems
    • Broken Democracy
    • Climate Change & Environment
    • Corporate Control of Food
    • Corporate Control of Water
    • Factory Farming & Food Safety
    • Fracking
    • GMOs
    • Global Trade
    • Pollution Trading
  • Solutions
    • Advocate Fair Policies
    • Legal Action
    • Organizing for Change
    • Research & Policy Analysis
  • Our Impact
    • Facts
    • Stories
    • Victories
  • Take Action
    • Get Active Where You Live
    • Organizing Tools
    • Find an Event
    • Volunteer with Us
    • Live Healthy
    • Donate
  • Give
    • Give Now
    • Give Monthly
    • Give a Gift Membership
    • Membership Options
    • Fundraise
    • Workplace Giving
    • Planned Giving
    • Other Ways to Give
  • About
  • News
  • Research Library
  • Contact
  • Careers
  • Donate
Learn more about Food & Water Action www.foodandwateraction.org.
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • 2021 © Food & Water Watch
  • www.foodandwaterwatch.org
  • Terms of Service
  • Data Usage Policy