In his blistering resignation letter, David Wright, director of the Office of research Integrity (ORI)–which monitors and oversees potential research misconduct–wrote that being ORI Director has been the “very worst job I have ever had.” In describing his disgust with the most gratuitous part of his work that he finds the most frustrating Wright wrote, ”That part of the job is spent navigating the remarkably dysfunctional HHS bureaucracy to secure resources and, yes, get permission for ORI to serve the research community. I knew coming into this job about the bureaucratic limitations of the federal government, but I had no idea how stifling it would be.”
Wright also wrote in his resignation letter, obtained by Scienceinsider, that he plans to publish his official daily log in an attempt to further shed light on his former agency.
Wright closed his letter saying “As for the rest, I’m offended as an American taxpayer that the federal bureaucracy — at least the part I’ve labored in — is so profoundly dysfunctional. I’m hardly the first person to have made that discovery, but I’m saddened by the fact that there is so little discussion, much less outrage, regarding the problem. To promote healthy and productive discussion, I intend to publish a version of the daily log I’ve kept as ORI Director in order to share my experience and observations with my colleagues in government and with members of the regulated research community.”
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