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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
14-B-0246
May 2, 2014
Why We Did This Review
On August 27, 2013, a member
of the U.S. Senate Committee
on Environment and Public
Works requested that the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), Office of
Inspector General (OIG),
initiate work in connection with
a fraud committed by John C.
Beale, a former Senior Policy
Advisor with the EPA's Office of
Air and Radiation. In particular,
the committee member asked
the OIG to determine EPA
policies and processes that
"facilitated" Beale's fraud.
Although the EPA authorized
retention incentive pay to Beale
until 2003, the agency
continued to make retention
incentive payments to him until
2013.
This report addresses the
following EPA theme:
• Embracing EPA as a high
performing organization.
EPA OIG Compliance With Retention Incentive
Regulations and Policies
What We Found
The EPA OIG did not comply with Office of
Personnel Management regulations or agency
policies on retention incentive pay. From 2006
through 2009, retention incentives were paid to
two EPA OIG employees. The two EPA OIG
employees received $64,204 in retention
incentives with no documentation of annual
recertification from 2008 through 2009.
The EPA OIG employees received unauthorized retention pay due to:
•	Management confusion over the requirement for annual recertification of
retention incentive pay.
•	Evidence of the annual recertification not being retained.
•	The agency's human resource system lacking internal controls to track,
notify and automatically discontinue retention incentive pay if not properly
authorized.
Unauthorized retention
incentive payments
totaling $64,204 were
made to EPA OIG
employees due to a lack
of adequate internal
controls and agency
follow-up.
Recommendation and Planned Corrective Actions
We recommend that the Deputy Inspector General determine whether any
additional evidence exists to justify a retention incentive. If unjustified, he
Deputy Inspector General should refer the matter to the agency to initiate action
to recover the unauthorized retention incentive amounts paid to EPA OIG
employees.
The Deputy Inspector General agreed with our recommendation.
For further information,
contact our public affairs office
at (202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.aov/oia/reports/2014/
20140502-14-B-0246.pdf

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