$ < 73 \ (J T ^ c>s° pRQl^ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General At a Glance 2007-1-00001 October 10, 2006 Catalyst for Improving the Environment Why We Did This Audit The Food Quality Protection Act requires that we perform an annual audit of the Pesticides Reregistration and Expedited Processing Fund (known as FIFRA) financial statements. Background The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for reassessing the safety of older pesticide registrations against modern health and environmental testing standards. To expedite this reregistration process, Congress authorized EPA to collect fees from pesticide manufacturers. The fees are deposited into the FIFRA Fund. Each year, the Agency prepares financial statements that present financial information about the Fund, along with information about EPA's progress in reregistering pesticides. Fiscal 2005 and 2004 Financial Statements for the Pesticides Reregistration and Expedited Processing Fund Opinion We rendered an unqualified, or clean, opinion on EPA's Pesticides Reregistration and Expedited Processing Fund Financial Statements for fiscal 2005 and 2004, meaning that they were fairly presented and free of material misstatement. Internal Control Reportable Conditions Noted During fiscal 2005, EPA's Washington Finance Center recorded adjusting and correcting entries for FIFRA collections in the Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) without adequately documenting the errors, corrections, or modifications. Compliance With Laws and Regulations Noted We tested compliance with those laws and regulations that could either materially affect the FIFRA Fund financial statements or that we considered significant to the audit. The objective of our audit, including our tests of compliance with applicable laws and regulations, was not to provide an opinion on overall compliance with such provisions. Accordingly, we do not express such an opinion. We did not identify any noncompliances that would result in a material misstatement to the audited financial statements. What We Recommend For further information, contact our Office of Congressional and Public Liaison at (202) 566-2391. To view the full report, click on the following link: www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2007/ 20061010-2007-1 -00001 .pdf We recommend that the Director, Washington Finance Center, Office of the Chief Financial Officer, adequately document adjusting and correcting entries entered in IFMS in accordance with the EPA Comptroller Policy Announcement No. 93-02, Policies for Documenting Agency Financial Transactions. Washington Finance Center officials agreed with our recommendation, and began corrective action to better document adjusting and correcting entries in IFMS. ------- |