,^osr^
vV^

y*,	^
PRO^
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Office of Inspector General
At a Glance
2005-P-00016
June 2, 2005
Why We Did This Review
In 2005, EPA's Office of
Administration and Resources
Management introduced new
policies to improve EPA's
ability to demonstrate grant
results. We sought to
determine how these policies
compare with techniques used
by leading nongovernmental
organizations.
Background
EPA historically faced
challenges demonstrating
grant program impacts on
human health and the
environment. As recently as
2004, Congress, the
Government Accountability
Office, and the EPA Office of
Inspector General expressed
concerns about the Agency's
ability to demonstrate the
results of the $4 billion per
year it grants to States,
localities, tribes, nonprofits,
and other organizations.
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.aov/oia/reports/2005/
20050602-2005-P-00016.pdf
Catalyst for Improving the Environment
EPA's Efforts to Demonstrate Grant Results Mirror
Nongovernmental Organizations' Practices
What We Found
EPA recently took steps to improve its ability to demonstrate results from grants.
In 2005, EPA instituted Results and Pre-Award policies intended to (1) ensure
clear links between grant results and EPA goals, and (2) enhance oversight of
grantee qualifications and performance. We found the practices required by these
policies generally consistent with practices of leading nongovernmental
organizations that fund environmental projects and emphasize grantee
performance measurement. We identified nongovernmental organization
techniques that EPA could consider to augment its policies.
What We Suggest
We suggest that EPA:
¦	Track implementation of the Results and Pre-Award Policies to ensure that
EPA staff and grantees follow the policies and better demonstrate grant results.
¦	Adopt the technique of providing sample logic models that lead grant
applicants toward established environmental and human health improvement
goals.
¦	Consider providing an online resource for grantees that provides training,
examples, and a question and answer bulletin board, as recommended by the
Office of Water. This one-stop resource could provide grantees with extensive
information about how to meet results reporting requirements.
¦	In order to ensure that grant dollars fund projects with a high chance of
success, EPA could include grantees" past performance as a ranking criterion
when competing discretionary grants and selecting successful applicants.
¦	Conduct a retrospective evaluation of a sample of EPA grant results to provide
the Agency with valuable information about how grant dollars contributed in
the past to environmental and human health improvements.
EPA agreed with our suggestions, but recommended conducting a retrospective
evaluation in 3 or 4 years, once the new results policy has been implemented,
rather than engaging in a retrospective evaluation now.

-------