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*. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	12-P-0360
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¦° ° At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
Office of Inspector General
(OIG) conducted this
congressionally required
review to report to the House
and Senate Committees on
Appropriations the Agency's
current efforts to strengthen
Superfund contracting controls
to prevent future waste, fraud,
and abuse.
Background
Congress enacted the
Comprehensive Environmental
Response, Compensation and
Liability Act of 1980,
commonly referred to as
Superfund, to address threats to
human health and the
environment. In the cleanup of
Superfund sites, EPA uses a
variety of instruments, such as
contracts and interagency
agreements (IAs). In fiscal year
2010, EPA obligated
$413 million to contracts and
$244 million to the U.S. Army
Corps of Engineers.
For further information, contact
our Office of Congressional and
Public Affairs at (202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.gov/oiq/reports/2012!
20120316-12-P-0360. pdf
EPA Superfund Contract Initiatives and Controls
to Reduce Fraud, Waste, and Abuse
What We Found
We identified three EPA initiatives related to Superfund contracting controls:
•	Contracts 2010 Strategy
•	Office of Acquisition Management's Performance Measurement and
Management Program
•	Recovery Act Stewardship Plan
In addition to the above initiatives, EPA has other contract internal controls in
place. EPA describes its contracting internal controls in documents such as the
Contracts Management Manual, EPA Acquisition Handbook, EPA Acquisition
Regulation, and IA Desk Manual. EPA evaluates implementation of internal
controls through Office of Management and Budget Circular A-123 reviews.
As required by the Committees, we identified 20 OIG audit reports issued to EPA
since fiscal year 2005 with recommendations related to Superfund contracting
controls. A full listing of those recommendations and EPA's corrective actions are
provided in appendix A. Some of the corrective actions implemented by EPA as a
result of our recommendations include:
•	EPA began verifying the timeliness of contractor performance evaluations
by contracting officers and revised the EPA Acquisition Handbook.
•	EPA developed a process to ensure adjustment vouchers and monies owed
to EPA are tracked until receipt.
•	EPA revised internal guidance to require a cost-benefit analysis be
conducted prior to awarding a Cost-Pius-A ward-Fee contract.
We noted that one audit report did not have two recommendations entered in the
Agency tracking system, nor were the corrective actions to address the
recommendations entered in the system.
We also identified five ongoing OIG audits and two audit projects planned to begin
in fiscal year 2012 that impact Superfund contracting controls or EPA contracting
controls in general.

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