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U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
17-P-0402
September 25, 2017
Why We Did This Review
We conducted this audit to
determine whether the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) established
controls and processes for
overseeing and managing
Puerto Rico's assistance
agreements to protect human
health and the environment.
Assistance agreements—which
include grants and cooperative
agreements—are mechanisms
used to transfer funds from the
EPA to another entity to serve
a public purpose. The EPA
provides recipients in the
Commonwealth of Puerto Rico
with assistance agreements for
environmental programs, such
as air pollution control and
hazardous waste management.
Region 2 oversees the EPA's
assistance agreements with
Puerto Rico.
This report addresses the
following:
• Operating efficiently and
effectively.
Region 2 Needs to Improve Its Internal Processes
Over Puerto Rico's Assistance Agreements
What We Found
Region 2 needs to improve its internal
processes over Puerto Rico's assistance
agreements in the following areas:
• Confirmations that the Puerto Rico
Environmental Quality Board's
equipment was used as intended.
We found that Region 2 Project Officers
equipment was used in accordance with
Region 2 may have inefficiently
used over $217,000 in taxpayer
funds by not confirming
equipment was used as intended
or obtaining support for
requested fringe benefit costs.
did not confirm the board's grant
approved work plans.
•	Documents and information in grant files that support assistance agreement
award decisions. Region 2 did not always include complete, accurate or
hard copy documents in the grant files.
•	Support for car allowance fringe benefit costs. Region 2 did not know
whether the grant recipient of two cooperative agreements maintained
supporting documentation for its car allowance fringe benefit costs.
As a result of these issues, the EPA may have inefficiently used taxpayer funds
for Environmental Quality Board equipment purchases, may need additional
support for grant award decisions in the official hard copy grant files, and may not
have evidence that taxpayer funds have been properly used under two
cooperative agreements.
Recommendations and Planned Corrective Actions
We made four recommendations to the Regional Administrator, Region 2,
regarding the EPA's internal processes over Puerto Rico's assistance
agreements:
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.aov/oia.
Listing of OIG reports.
•	Train Project Officers to follow grant guidance and to confirm equipment
purchases and use during the post-award phase.
•	Require Project Officers and Grant Management Specialists to take
specific, annual training on grant file management.
•	Require Project Officers to take specific, annual training on conducting
baseline monitoring reviews.
•	Determine support for car allowance fringe benefit costs.
Region 2 agreed with the four recommendations and provided appropriate
corrective actions.

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