^EDSrx * A \ \ Wj %pR0^° U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General At a Glance 17-N-0295 June 28, 2017 Why We Did This Review The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Office of Inspector General (OIG) operates and maintains a system of quality controls designed to provide reasonable assurance that personnel performing audit or evaluation functions comply with all generally accepted government auditing standards (GAGAS) and established OIG policies and procedures. Quality assurance staff from the OIG's Office of Management, Office of Audit, and Office of Program Evaluation report annually on systemic issues identified during referencing and compliance monitoring reviews. They also make observations on compliance with GAGAS and OIG policy. This report addresses the following EPA OIG goal: • Contribute to improved business practices and accountability. Quality Control Review of EPA OIG Reports Issued in Fiscal Year 2016 What We Found During the fiscal year (FY) 2016 quality assurance monitoring process, the OIG continued to make internal improvements related to the planning and supervision of audits and evaluations, quality of evidence collected, and reporting of audit status and accomplishments in OIG information systems. Nonetheless, further improvements can be made. OIG reports issued in FY 2016 demonstrated high levels of compliance with OIG quality assurance procedures and received average compliance scores of 93 percent. Most of the issues identified during the FY 2015 review have improved. The FY 2016 review noted a few additional areas for improvement. Product Line Directors and staff have improved their ensuring that working papers are clear, concise and easy to follow. Staff also continued to resolve Project Manager and Product Line Director comments in working papers in a timely manner, and to ensure that the clearance of comments is documented in working papers. Personal impairment forms were clearly legible to the reviewer based on action taken in response to our recommendation in the prior quality control review. In addition, a review of a sample of EPA OIG staff training records showed that they met the required Continuing Professional Education requirement for the 1-year period ending September 30, 2016. We found that improvements should be made in the frequency and documentation of agency status meetings. We noted that 12 of the 54 assignments scored, or 22 percent, lacked documentation of meetings or that the agency was updated on the status of findings during the meeting. Also, the agency was not regularly updated throughout the assignment; specifically, agency status meetings were not consistently provided every 4 to 6 weeks. Recommendations for Improvement We recommend that the Deputy Inspector General require OIG managers to reinforce Project Management Handbook and OIG policy requirements that teams have regular status meetings at least every 4 to 6 weeks or as agreed to with the reviewed entity. Projects should begin with a documented kickoff meeting and continue with regular documented status meetings throughout the project. Deputy Inspector General Response Send all inquiries to our public affairs office at (202) 566-2391 The Deputy Inspector General agreed with this report's recommendation and or visit www.epa.gov/oig. suggestions, and directed the Office of Audit and Office of Program Evaluation to provide specific milestone and/or completion dates. The Office of Audit and Listing of OIG reports. Office of Program Evaluation implemented the corrective actions to meet the intent of the recommendation and suggestions. ------- |