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* *- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	17-P-0303
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\ Office of Inspector General
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At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
The Office of Inspector General
(OIG) performed this risk
assessment of the U.S.
Chemical Safety and Hazard
Investigation Board's (CSB's)
purchase card use during fiscal
year (FY) 2016, as required by
the Government Charge Card
Abuse Prevention Act of 2012.
The act requires the Inspector
General of each agency to
conduct periodic assessments
of the agency's purchase card
program or convenience check
programs to analyze the risks
of illegal, improper or
erroneous purchases.
In FY 2016, the OIG conducted
an audit of CSB's purchase
card program, and, based on
improvements to its internal
controls, we determined that
CSB's program was at low risk
for illegal, improper or
erroneous purchases and
payments. As a result, we
conducted a risk assessment in
FY 2017, which provided the
data for this report.
This report addresses the
following CSB goal:
• Preserve the public trust by
maintaining and improving
organizational excellence.
CSB Purchase Card Program at Low Risk for
Unauthorized Purchases
What We Found
CSB's purchase card
program, for which it spent
$238,390 in FY 2016, is at
low risk for unauthorized
purchases.
The CSB purchase card program is at low risk for
unauthorized purchases. The CSB should
continue to follow the regulations set forth in its
Charge Card Management Plan and Office of
Management and Budget's guidance governing
agency purchase cards. Our review of nine
sampled transactions found the transactions to be legitimate and that CSB
complied with applicable plans and guidance.
However, the CSB FY 2016 Account Activity Report that CSB originally provided
to the OIG was inaccurate. The CSB purchase card transaction records are
maintained by the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Bureau of the Fiscal
Service (BFS). BFS inadvertently excluded identical purchase transactions made
to the same vendor on the same day for the same dollar amount when it provided
the report to CSB. Identical purchase transactions signify possible unallowed split
transactions, which occur when an agency splits the costs of purchases into
separate transactions to avoid exceeding acquisition thresholds.
Upon learning of its error, BFS generated an accurate report, which CSB
provided to the OIG. The updated report contained an additional 26 transactions,
which were identical to ones previously listed. These 26 possible split
transactions totaled $14,942, bringing the total number and cost of the report's
transactions to 561 and $238,390. We reviewed the transactions in the new
report and did not identify any split transactions.
Recommendation and Planned Agency Actions
We recommend that CSB review and reconcile BFS Account Activity Report
transaction counts and totals to the purchase card records maintained by CSB in
its financial system before providing these reports to the OIG. CSB concurred
with this recommendation and plans to complete the corrective action during the
FY 2018 risk assessment. The recommendation is therefore resolved with
corrective action pending.
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.gov/oiq.
Listing of OIG reports.

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