U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
                   Office of Inspector General

                   At  a   Glance
                                                            10-P-0002
                                                       October 7, 2009
                                                                Catalyst for Improving the Environment
Why We Did This Review

We conducted this review in
response to an anonymous
Hotline complaint. The
complaint alleged that the
U. S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
inappropriately granted full-
time work-at-home status to
an employee so that employee
could move outside of the
Washington, DC, area.
Background
EPA's Office of
Administration and Resources
Management (OARM)
provides national leadership,
policy, and management for
support functions such as
human resources management.
The Office of Enforcement
and Compliance Assurance's
National Enforcement
Training Institute (NETI) is
responsible for training
personnel in the enforcement
and compliance of the nation's
environmental laws, and is the
office where the subject of the
complaint was employed.
For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional, Public Affairs
and Management at
(202)566-2391.

To view the full report,
click on the following link:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2010/
20091007-10-P-0002.pdf
Review of Hotline Complaint on Employee
Granted Full-Time Work-at-Home Privilege
 What We Found
We found an unauthorized, full-time work-at-home arrangement that has existed
for 9 years and allows a NETI employee to work from home in Ohio instead of an
office in Washington, DC. The employee and position were originally located in
the Washington area and the employee later moved as the result of a spouse
transfer. In our opinion, NETI's actions are for the benefit of a single employee
as opposed to being primarily in the interest of the government,  and this action
was not equitably provided within NETI. EPA has no established or consistent
policy, procedure, or criteria for granting full-time work-at-home privilege.
Full-time work-at-home opportunity appears to be preferentially available to only
a few employees. Neither OARM nor NETI has  any written documentation
showing the government interest in or appropriateness of making this
arrangement, or that senior OARM officials approved this action.

Office of Human Resources personnel (the Associate Deputy Director of Program
Management & Communications, and the Agency Telework Coordinator) stated
that EPA became aware of similar arrangements due to research it performed for
an unrelated court case. OARM raised concerns  about equity in such
arrangements, and believes this must be brought under control.  To date, OARM
has not corrected this situation.
 What We Recommend
We recommend that the Deputy Administrator assign responsibility for
authorizing all non-OARM duty station changes to the Assistant Administrator for
OARM.  We further recommend that the Assistant Administrator for
Administration and Resources Management establish and implement Agency
policy for all EPA employees that clearly articulates the process and procedures
for changing an employee's duty  station to a location geographically separate from
the position of record. We also recommend that the Agency quickly bring into
compliance with the new policy all existing full-time work at a duty station
separate from the position of record. The Agency generally agreed with these
recommendations and estimated all of the recommendations will be implemented
by July 2010.

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