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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
13-P-0398
September 16, 2013
Why We Did This Review
The U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency Office of Inspector
General conducted this audit to
determine whether the EPA
implemented effective contract
administration for its Working
Capital Fund contract EPW08034.
The Office of Administration and
Resources Management's Office
of Acquisition Management and
the Office of Environmental
Information's Office of Technology
Operations and Planning perform
contract administration activities
with contracting officers, project
officers and quality assurance
managers for the Customer
Technology Solutions contract
EPW08034. Contract
administration involves those
activities performed by
government officials after a
contract has been awarded to
determine how well the
government and the contractor
performed to meet the contract
requirements. Contract
administration assists the
government in assuring it receives
the goods and services for which it
paid.
This report addresses the
following EPA theme:
• Embracing EPA as a high
performing organization.
For further information, contact
our Office of Congressional and
Public Affairs at (202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2013/
20130916-13-P-0398.pdf
Improved Contract Administration Needed for the
Customer Technology Solutions Contract
What We Found
Based on our review of the WCF contract EPW08034, which ended
September 2012, the EPA needs to improve its contract administration to
assist in managing other similar type contracts. The EPA did not, as stated by
Office of Management and Budget, Federal Acquisition Regulations and
agency guidelines:
•	Use performance standards to measure cost outcomes.
•	Complete any of the required contractor performance evaluation reports.
•	Maintain required contract administration documents.
The EPA did not have policies in place that would require performance metrics
and standards to be linked to cost outcomes and procedures to ensure
contract administrators maintain sufficient documents in the official contract
files. The EPA did not complete contractor performance reports because of
insufficient guidance and inadequate communications during contractor
performance system changes and personnel reassignments. The EPA's
contractor performance systems include the National Institutes of Health's
Contractor Performance System and subsequently the Contractor
Performance Assessment Reporting System, which transmits information into
the Past Performance Information Retrieval System. The EPA's ineffective
contract administration may have hindered the ability of EPA staff to ensure
that the contractor successfully met agency needs, as well as its ability to
determine whether the EPA achieved the best value for the $85 million
expended on the WCF contract.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the OARM assistant administrator update its policies and
procedures to ensure that contract performance metrics and standards link to
cost outcomes. We also made recommendations involving updating internal
programs to provide oversight and accountability for linking metrics to cost
outcomes and the review and submission of contractor performance
evaluation reports for the contract reviewed. Further, we recommend that
OARM develop contract administration procedures related to the transfer of
documents when reassigning contract administrative staff.
OARM concurred with four of the six recommendations and did not concur
with recommendations 1 and 2. The OARM's corrective actions for
recommendations 3 through 6 do not contain milestones nor completely
address the recommendations and are unresolved.
Noteworthy Achievements
The Office of Acquisition Management implemented the Balanced Scorecard
program in fiscal year 2011 for the EPA Acquisition Systems to provide the
necessary checks and balances to ensure procurement documents are of the
highest quality and comply with applicable laws, regulations and policies.

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