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                   U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                   Office of Inspector General

                   At   a   Glance
                                                           08-P-0276
                                                    September 24, 2008
                                                                Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Why We Did This Review

We performed this audit to
determine what corrective
actions the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) took as a result
of our 2005 audit of grants
accountability.

Background

In February 2005, the
Chairman of the House
Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure asked the
Office of Inspector General
(OIG) to evaluate whether
EPA held supervisors and
their project officers
accountable for grants
management responsibilities.
The resulting  review, dated
September 27, 2005, identified
a number of continuing grants
management weaknesses. In
response to the OIG's report,
EPA provided a corrective
action plan with milestones for
completing the plan steps.
EPA Actions Should Lead to Improved
Grants Accountability
 What We Found
EPA implemented the corrective action plan it prepared in response to the
September 2005 OIG report on grant accountability. In the 2005 report, we
recommended that EPA establish a process to measure project officer, supervisor,
and manager performance against grants management requirements. EPA
established a process for measuring project officer performance, including
quantitative performance measures such as the average number of days to
transmit funding recommendations and the number of baseline monitoring
activities for active awards.  The 2005 report recommended that EPA ensure
managers and supervisors discuss grants management during performance
reviews. Surveys of project officers and supervisors indicate that the discussions
are occurring.

The 2005 report also recommended that EPA ensure weaknesses identified in
management reviews are communicated to project officers.  Office of Grants and
Debarment provided program offices and regions with the results of grants
management reviews and comprehensive performance reviews with the
instruction to distribute the information to supervisors and project officers.  EPA's
actions should lead to improvements in managing assistance agreements.

This report contains no recommendations. In its response, EPA stated that it will
continue to work with the grants management community to ensure that grants
accountability is a focal point in managing assistance agreements.
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional and Public
Liaison at (202) 566-2391.

To view the full report,
click on the following link:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2008/
20080924-08-P-0276.pdf

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