^
 I
 I
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General

At   a  Glance
  11-P-0228
May 16, 2011
                                                               Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Why We Did This Review

The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
oversees water program
assistance agreements. The
purpose of this audit was to
determine whether EPA has
adequately monitored obligations
on operator certification expense
reimbursement grants (ERGs).
Our objectives were to determine:
(1) the status of utilization of the
ERG funds,  (2) impediments
recipients faced in utilizing the
funds and what EPA has done to
facilitate reaching the target of
expending ERG funds by
December 2012, and (3) the
amount of ERG dollars that can
be deobligated.

Background

EPA achieves clean and safe
water goals by providing funds
through assistance agreements to
states, local governments, and
tribes under  the water program.
To comply with the provisions of
the Safe Drinking Water Act,
EPA awarded operator
              EPA Should Reduce Unliquidated Obligations
              Under Expense Reimbursement Grants
certification ERGs to states.
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional, Public Affairs and
Management at (202) 566-2391.

The full report is at:
www.epa.gov/oiq/reports/20117
20110516-11-P-0228.pdf
              What We Found
              We identified $6.6 million of potentially unneeded funds that could have
              been deobligated for three ERGs awarded by EPA Regions 4 and 5
              ($3.3 million for Georgia, $2.3 million for North Carolina, and $1.0 million
              for Wisconsin). Region 4 deobligated over $3.3 million in unneeded funds
              from the Georgia ERG and closed the grant in March 2011. According to
              Region 4, North Carolina signed an amendment on March 21,  2011, to
              extend the project period end date to January 1, 2012, to allow it to use the
              remaining $2.3 million. Region 5 deobligated about $2.2 million from the
              Wisconsin grant in February 2011. Region 5 responded that it  extended the
              grant ending period from June 30, 2011, to December 31, 2012, to allow
              Wisconsin to use the remaining funds.

              Since EPA began awarding ERG funds in 2001, we found that states are not
              adequately utilizing ERG funds to provide training and certification to water
              system operators in accordance  with the requirements of the operator training
              and certification program. States faced numerous impediments in spending
              the funds, such as staff shortages, global recession, hiring freezes, higher-
              priority water projects, and contractors not completing as much work as
              initially proposed.
              What We Recommend
              We recommend that the Regional Administrator, Region 4, direct the
              region's Water Protection Division Director to deobligate the $3.3 million of
              unneeded funds for Georgia and monitor North Carolina's spending of the
              $2.3 million of remaining funds through the end of the grant period and
              deobligate any unused funds. We also recommend that the Regional
              Administrator, Region 5, direct that region's Water Protection Division
              Director to continually monitor Wisconsin's spending of the remaining funds
              through the end of the grant period and deoligate any unused funds. While
              the regions responded that they disagreed with our recommendations,
              Region 5 did deobligate $2.2 million (Wisconsin) and Region 4 did
              deobligate $3.3 million (Georgia). However, Region 4 did not deobligate
              $2.3 million (North Carolina) as the OIG recommended.

-------