tfED srA/.
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	19-P-0001
^ l.-m	Offino r>f Incnortnr fionoi-al	November 6, 2018
<
33
•	UiOi 111V11 Ul 111 ICr 11 Id I I I UlUl/U
_mm^ \ Office of Inspector General
SSzZJ
At a Glance
\ <
*1 PRO^
Why We Did This Project
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA),
Office of Inspector General
(OIG), conducted this audit to
determine whether criminal
investigators in the EPA's
Office of Criminal Enforcement,
Forensics and Training
(OCEFT) properly record Law
Enforcement Availability Pay
(LEAP) hours in compliance
with federal requirements and
EPA policies and procedures.
Criminal investigators are
provided premium pay or LEAP
for being available for
unscheduled duty beyond their
regular 40-hour workweek
based on the needs of the
employing agency. To earn
LEAP, criminal investigators
must average, on an annual
basis, 2 hours of unscheduled
duty per regular workday.
This report addresses the
following:
•	Compliance with the law.
•	Operating efficiently and
effectively.
EPA Law Enforcement Availability Pay Properly Certified
but Controls over Process Could Be Improved
Send all inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391
or visit www.epa.gov/oiq.
Listing of OIG reports.
Criminal investigators
worked an average of
2 hours of unscheduled
duty per regular workday
to meet annual certification
requirements for 2017.
What We Found
We found that EPA criminal investigators
complied with federal requirements for LEAP
annual certification. Our sample results showed
that the criminal investigators worked an average
of 2 hours of unscheduled duty per regular
workday as required. With one exception, annual
certifications were completed and approved for
fiscal year 2017. The one exception occurred because the system used to
capture monthly LEAP activities did not allow for an electronic certification for a
criminal investigator who worked a partial year. Additionally, a hard-copy
certification was not submitted for approval.
We identified controls over the reporting of LEAP hours and the annual
certification process that could be improved. We found that:
•	Monthly activity reports were not always submitted and approved as
required by the Monthly Activity Reporting System procedures manual.
•	Supervisors did not approve most annual certifications by October 10, 2017,
as required by OCEFT's premium pay policy.
•	Five of 12 criminal investigators selected from our sample incorrectly
excluded workdays from their substantial hours calculation.
We could not determine why criminal investigators and supervisors were not
following the submission and approval requirements for the monthly activity
reports. The untimely approval of certifications resulted from delays in the update
of approval officials and submission of untimely and incomplete monthly activity
reports by the criminal investigators. Continued late submissions and approvals
can lead to delays in the quarterly assessment and annual certification process.
While the criminal investigators met annual certification requirements for 2017,
untimely submittals and approvals, as well as incorrectly excluded workdays, put
criminal investigators at risk of not meeting future certification requirements; put
supervisors at risk of making erroneous approvals; and increase the risk for
fraud, waste and abuse.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the agency (1) enforce compliance with required time frames
for monthly activity reports, (2) implement controls to improve the timeliness of the
annual certification process, and (3) enforce compliance with the substantial
hours requirement. The agency agreed with Recommendations 1 and 2 and
provided sufficient corrective actions and completion dates. The OIG revised
Recommendation 3, and the agency agreed with the revised recommendation
and provided a sufficient corrective action and completion date.

-------