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*. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	13-P-0337
#	\ Office of Inspector General	July 30 2013

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At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency Office of
Inspector General initiated this
audit to determine whether the
U.S. Chemical Safety and
Hazard Investigation Board has
an effective system for
managing its investigative
process. CSB is an
independent federal agency,
authorized by the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1990 to
investigate, determine and
report to the public in writing
the facts, conditions and
circumstances and the cause or
probable cause of any
accidental release resulting in a
fatality, serious injury or
substantial property damages.
This report addresses the
following CSB goal:
• Conduct incident
investigations and safety
studies concerning releases
of hazardous chemical
substances.
U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board
Needs to Complete More Timely Investigations
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/
20130730-13-P-0337.pdf
What We Found
CSB does not have an effective management system to meet its established
performance goal to "[cjonduct incident investigations and safety studies
concerning releases of hazardous chemical substances." CSB has not fully
accomplished its related strategic objective to "[cjomplete timely, high quality
investigations that examine the technical, management systems, organizational,
and regulatory causes of chemical incidents." We identified five reasons why CSB
did not meet its objective to timely complete investigations:
•	A lack of defined performance indicators in CSB's annual performance plan,
which are necessary to assess the efficiency of its investigations process.
•	A backlog of open investigations without documented plans for resolution.
•	An average investigative staff turnover rate of 15 percent.
•	Non-collocation of files and incorrectly classified or coded investigation files.
•	A need for updated policies over current investigative procedures and a
policy that defines final investigative products.
By completing investigations more timely, CSB can better fulfill its mission and
improve its ability to ensure that it provides the community and other stakeholders
with findings and recommendations to help reduce the occurrence of similar
incidents, which would protect human health and the environment.
Recommendations and CSB Planned Corrective Actions
We made nine recommendations, including that the CSB chairperson:
•	Develop and implement performance indicators.
•	Revise and publish annual and individual action plans.
•	Review investigations open for over 3 years and develop a close-out plan.
•	Review investigation files for each ongoing investigation to ensure it contains
all the supporting documents related to the investigation.
•	Implement and update the management policy for investigative records.
CSB agreed with six of nine recommendations and responded in detail to each in
appendix A. CSB plans to complete proposed corrective actions by December 31,
2013. CSB disagreed with the remaining three recommendations and resolution
efforts are in progress.
Noteworthy Achievements
CSB has made progress in providing investigators with training and identifying
operational tools for the investigative process. CSB also instituted the use of
scoping documents and recommendation briefings to help improve the process.

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