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*	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	17-p-0408
JHL \ Office of Inspector General	September 26, 2017
\
—At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA),
Office of Inspector General
(OIG), performed this audit to
determine whether EPA
oversight and use of audio
conference line services are an
efficient and economical way to
use taxpayer funds.
The EPA provides multiple
audio conference services.
Reservationless Plus is the
agency's primary audio
conference service. In fiscal
years 2015 and 2016, EPA
offices and regions spent
over $8 million using
Reservationless Plus.
The EPA's Office of
Environmental Information
(OEI) is the administrator of the
agency's audio conference line
services.
This report addresses the
following:
• Operating efficiently and
effectively.
EPA Needs to Improve Oversight of Its
Audio Conference Services
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.aov/oia.
Listing of OIG reports.
What We Found
The EPA's internal controls and oversight of its audio
conference services need improvement. Our review
found the following:
• The EPA did not establish official policies and
procedures for the efficient use of audio
conference services.
The EPA is unable to
substantiate whether
its audio conference
service usage totaling
$8.4 million was
cost-effective.
•	The EPA did not effectively monitor service costs and usage, and did not
have documentation readily available to determine whether service cost
estimates were reasonable and accurate.
•	Two EPA regions and an EPA program office spent over $260,000 to
contract for services already provided by the agency.
This occurred because the EPA was not fully aware of the required controls
needed to mitigate risks, including management roles and responsibilities for
such control activities. In fiscal year 2016, the EPA spent about $1.2 million for
audio conference calls with one to six participants. These costs could have been
avoided by using other less costly conference call services.
Recommendations and Planned Corrective Actions
We recommend that OEI's Assistant Administrator and Chief Information Officer
establish internal controls that include (a) completing an assessment,
(b) implementing policies and procedures that define customer roles and
responsibilities, and (c) providing training on the use of audio conference
services and avenues for potential cost savings. We also recommend that OEI
design and implement internal controls that allow EPA program offices and
regions to monitor audio conference activities. In addition, we recommend that
OEI maintain documentation to support Reservationless Plus usage rate
formulation, approvals and calculations.
We recommend that the EPA's Chief Financial Officer increase customer
awareness about the agency's Working Capital Fund Policy Standard
requirements for mandatory services, and establish controls that require EPA
program offices and regions to comply with the mandatory services requirements.
The agency concurred with all recommendations, but OEI's planned corrective
actions do not meet the intent of Recommendations 1, 2 and 4. These
recommendations are unresolved, and we will work with the agency for
resolution. We consider the planned corrective actions for Recommendation 3
to be acceptable. Recommendation 3 is resolved with corrective actions pending.

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