ATLANTA -- Bush administration audits of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have provoked complaints from center officials who say the requests are hindering the organization's ability to effectively execute HIV prevention programs.

Fox News reports officials of the Health and Human Services Department's inspector general's office, who are charged with overseeing the Atlanta-based CDC, confirm that all of the CDC's HIV and AIDS-related programs are currently under review.

In addition, HHS officials are also reviewing grants and contracts administered by the CDC, creating enormous administrative demands on CDC staff.

The review follows a critical report last year that objected to the content of some HIV-prevention programs being conducted in San Francisco. Conservatives said sexually explicit programs were being run with CDC funds that ought to be considered inappropriate under government Republican Congressman Dave Weldon, who has advocated abstinence as an appropriate HIV prevention strategy and pushed for the repeal of the District of Columbia's domestic partnership law, said the review was entirely appropriate under the circumstances.

"It seems that the CDC has been influenced by various political agendas instead of a strict political mandate," said Weldon.

CDC advocates say that while a healthy monitoring of taxpayer funding is wise, the Bush administration has created a "culture of tension and micromanagement" that is threatening the ability of the CDC to effectively pursue its public health mandate.

"In my experience, the first year under any new administration, Republican or Democrat, the particular agencies are very active in trying to respond to the political agenda of the administration in power," said William Cates of Family Health International and a 20 year veteran of the CDC.

"Regardless of that, it seems to me that there has been a more restrictive and sort of micromanaging oversight from the standpoint of this administration that has continued beyond that first year and has tended, in my mind, to harm us rather than build on the collective expertise at the CDC."