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*. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	13-P-0208
Office of Inspector General	March 28 2013
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\.o At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
We conducted this review to
determine if the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) is reducing the
amount of high risk contracting
activities for remedial actions.
In the cleanup of Superfund
sites, EPA uses a variety of
instruments (such as contracts,
cooperative agreements, and
interagency agreements) to
obtain Superfund remedial
services. One such instrument
used in procuring these
services is the Remedial Action
Contract (RAC). The Agency
had expenditures of almost
$570 million for remedial
actions under RAC contracts
for fiscal years 2007 through
2011.
This report addresses the
following EPA Goals or
Cross-Cutting Strategies:
•	Cleaning up communities
and advancing sustainable
development.
•	Strengthening EPA's
workforce and capabilities.
EPA Should Increase Fixed-Price Contracting
for Remedial Actions
For further information, contact
our Office of Congressional and
Public Affairs at (202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.aov/oia/reports/2013/
20130328-13-P-0208.pdf
What We Found
EPA continues to rely on high risk cost-reimbursement contracts and time-and-
materials task orders in the Superfund remedial program. The President, U.S.
Office of Management and Budget, Congress, and U.S. Government
Accountability Office have called for a reduction in high risk contracts. Resistance
to change, regional program office pressure, lack of leadership, and lack of trained
qualified staff have contributed to the reliance on high risk contracts. Reducing the
reliance on these contracts can result in numerous benefits, including cost
savings, increased competition, and achievement of socio-economic goals.
Additionally, the EPA Acquisition System (EAS) contains inaccurate contract and
task order types. Specifically, 5 of 17 contracts and 22 of 60 task orders and work
assignments reviewed had an incorrect contract or award type listed in EAS. The
inaccurate data in EAS is due to the lack of a specific EAS data quality plan and a
decentralized quality assessment process. As a result, EPA is misreporting
contract and spending information to the public.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that EPA require written acquisition plans for cost reimbursement
RAC contracts be approved by the Head of the Contracting Activity. We also
recommend that EPA develop performance measures and goals for each region
for the use of fixed-price contracts and task orders, and recommend that EPA
provide training to staff on how and when less risky contracts and task orders
should be used. Finally, we recommend that EPA determine whether staffing
changes are needed in each region to ensure that staff have the skills to manage
the increased use of fixed-price contracts and task orders and develop a data
quality plan for EAS to ensure the adequacy of data across all regions.
EPA agreed in principle to the objectives of the report - to improve acquisition
planning and increase the use of fixed price contracts where appropriate. EPA
concurred with two of our recommendations but disagreed or did not respond to
four others. EPA did agree to provide training on how and when less risky
contracts and tasks orders are appropriate. EPA indicated that the decision on
contract type must be made on a case-by-case basis and did not agree with
requiring certain contract types or setting performance measures for fixed price
contracting. We revised one of the draft report recommendations to not require a
certain contract type, but to elevate the responsibility for approving future cost-
reimbursable RAC contracts.
Noteworthy Achievements
EPA Region 7 is implementing the vision of the original Contracts 2000 Strategy to
increase the use of fixed price contracting for Superfund remedial actions.

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