ED STA/.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	13-P-0432
Office of Inspector General	September 26,2013
/ rn
<
At a Glance
Why We Did This Review
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA),
Office of Inspector General
(OIG), sought to determine
whether the EPA has controls
in place to ensure that its help
desks, hotlines and
clearinghouses are operating
in an efficient and effective
manner. Members of the
public and other interested
individuals searching the
EPA's website for a telephone
number to call for help with an
environmental problem can
find dozens of different help
desks, hotlines and
clearinghouses.
This report addresses the
following EPA themes:
•	Making a visible difference
in communities across the
country.
•	Expanding the conversation
on environmentalism.
•	Working toward a
sustainable future.
For further information,
contact our public affairs office
at (202) 566-2391.
The full report is at:
www.epa.gov/oig/reports/2013/
20130926-13-P-0432.pdf
Controls and Oversight Needed to Improve
Administration of EPA's Customer Service Lines
What We Found
The EPA has a variety of resources—including telephone hotlines, Web
clearinghouses, and other online reference information—which the OIG has
categorized as customer service lines (CSLs). The EPA's 41 external CSLs
reviewed have oversight practices that vary according to the emphasis placed
on monitoring, evaluating success, and providing accurate information to the
public. There are no specific EPA orgovernmentwide guidances or standards
for operating and managing CSLs. Without guidance or procedures to ensure
consistent oversight of CSLs, there is limited assurance that the
approximately $5.7 million of funds used to operate 30 of the CSLs in
fiscal year 2011 achieved the desired results (cost not available for 11 CSLs).
CSL information on the agency's website is incomplete. The agency lacks
specific guidance regarding the identification, presentation and management
of CSL information on the Web. As a result, the quality of customer service is
negatively affected. In addition, the EPA's regions and program offices do not
properly identify, present and manage CSL information on the Web;
therefore, customers using the Internet may not be able to access relevant
environmental information in a timely manner.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the EPA's Deputy Administrator develop agencywide
guidance for the monitoring and oversight of EPA CSLs, and review external
CSLs to determine their cost efficiency. We also recommend that the
Deputy Administrator develop guidance for the identification, presentation and
management of CSL information on the Internet.
The EPA agreed with the draft report's message that the agency needs to
consider an appropriate policy response to improve the administration of
CSLs. The agency is seeking input from the assistant, associate and regional
administrators in order to develop and implement necessary improvements.
We agree with the agency's actions; however, milestone dates for the
development of the policy and improvements of CSLs are needed. As a result,
the recommendations are unresolved.
Noteworthy Achievements
CSLs in some regions were effectively consolidated. For instance, all of
Region 2's citizen complaints are consolidated into its headquarters citizen
complaint database, regardless of how the complaints were received by the
region. To combine resources, Region 3 has consolidated its Regional Public
Information Center into an existing contract that includes the region's library,
hotline, legal library and Superfund records room. To avoid the administrative
burden associated with awarding and managing two contracts instead of one,
the EPA plans to consolidate the operations of the Toxic Substances Control
Act Hotline and the "Lead Hotline" of the National Lead Information Center.

-------