^£D sx • A \ U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General At a Glance 12-P-0843 September 21, 2012 Why We Did This Review We conducted this review to determine whether the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) Environmental Workforce Development and Job Training (Environmental Job Training) program is addressing its program goals and whether duplications may occur with other EPA job training programs. The broad goals of the Environmental Job Training program are to recruit and teach individuals from solid and hazardous waste-impacted communities the skills needed to secure employment in the environmental field. Recruitment focuses on low-income, minority, unemployed, and under-employed people. Training focuses on assessment and cleanup of contaminated sites, health and safety, and other environmental skills. In fiscal year 2011, the first year of the program, EPA awarded 22 job-training grants collectively valued at more than $6.5 million. This report addresses the following EPA Goal or Cross-Cutting Strategy: • Cleaning up communities and advancing sustainable development For further information, contact our Office of Congressional and Public Affairs at (202) 566-2391. The full report is at: www.epa.aov/oia/reports/2012/ 20120921-12-P-0843.pdf Environmental Job Training Program impiemented Well, But Focus Needed on Possible Duplication With Other EPA Programs What We Found EPA effectively established and adhered to competitive criteria that resulted in the selection of job training proposals that addressed the broad goals of the Environmental Job Training program. However, EPA did not have internal controls to identify and prevent duplication with other EPA job training programs. Consequently, there is some risk of duplication in EPA awards for job training programs. Other EPA programs that could possibly duplicate Environmental Job Training activities include the: • Superfund Job Training Initiative (SuperJTI) job readiness program • Surveys, Studies, Investigations, Training and Special Purpose Activities Relating to Environmental Justice grant program • Environmental Justice Small Grant Program EPA recognizes the need to identify possible duplication. In fiscal year 2012, EPA added a requirement to its Environmental Job Training grant application for applicants to demonstrate that their proposed project will complement, but not duplicate, other federally funded environmental job training programs. However, assigning a determination of duplication to an applicant may be an ineffective internal control unless EPA has assurance that applicants possess the necessary knowledge and skills to perform the duplication determination. Effective internal controls should identify all EPA job training programs with similar goals and include measurable individual program contributions or outcomes to meet these goals. This would provide a basis for integrating potentially duplicative, overlapping, or complementary job training programs. Recommendation and Planned Agency Corrective Action We recommend that the Assistant Administrator for Solid Waste and Emergency Response establish internal controls for coordination with other EPA-funded job training programs to prevent duplication of effort and spending. The Agency agreed with the findings and recommendation in this report, committed to work to improve internal controls in order to better identify and prevent duplication with other EPA job training programs, and provided a milestone completion date for the recommendation. ------- |