q* j.	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	20-P-0065
•?	\ Office of Inspector General	December 30,2019
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w At a Glance
Why We Did This Project
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA's)
Office of Inspector General
(OIG) conducted this audit to
determine whether the agency
is appropriately using split and
combined time-off and monetary
awards. A split award is a
monetary award that has been
separated into two or more
smaller awards. A combined
award includes both time-off
and monetary awards.
In response to an OIG audit
completed in 2015 (EPA OIG
Report No. 16-P-0048, issued
November 30, 2015), the EPA
adopted an interim policy
related to the approval of
awards. This interim policy
requires a higher-level review
and approval of individual
employee monetary awards that
total more than $5,000 for any
one employee in a fiscal year.
This report addresses the
following:
• Operating efficiently and
effectively.
EPA Needs to Improve Management and
Monitoring of Time-Off Awards
What We Found
The EPA successfully implemented interim
policies and procedures for reviewing and
approving monetary awards that total more than
$5,000 in a fiscal year for any one employee.
However, the agency does not follow U.S. Office
of Personnel Management guidance for valuing
time-off awards. Specifically, the EPA does not
assess a value for time-off awards as part of its
awards program. The agency, therefore, cannot determine whether its time-off
awards are consistently assessed, approved at the appropriate level when
combined with monetary awards, and commensurate with employee
achievements.
The EPA's time-off
awards program needs
to be held to the same
standard as the
agency's monetary
awards program, both
in execution and
resource management.
We also found that the agency does not monitor time-off awards as a
resource. From calendar years 2015 through 2017, the agency awarded
355,511 hours—a total of over 170 full-time positions—in time-off awards.
However, these awards are not managed or monitored in regard to agency
productivity or workload management. A large number of time-off hours
awarded results in lost productivity, which can adversely impact the agency's
mission.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the Assistant Administrator for Mission Support (1) revise
EPA Manual 3130 A2, Recognition Policy and Procedures Manual, to
establish a methodology to determine the equivalent value of time-off awards;
(2) update its 2016 interim policy to include the combined value of all
awards—both monetary and time-off—when determining the appropriate level
of review and approval, and incorporate this update into EPA Manual 3130 A2;
and (3) establish internal control procedures to monitor time-off awards as part
of EPA resource management.
The EPA did not agree with Recommendations 1 and 2. The agency agreed
with Recommendation 3 but did not provide acceptable planned corrective
actions. We consider all three recommendations unresolved.
Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG WEBCOMMENTS@epa.gov.
Noteworthy Achievement
In 2019, the EPA streamlined its processing of monetary and time-off awards.
According to the agency, this streamlined process reduced the overall costs of
processing awards by 31.3 percent or $1.33 million annually.
List of OIG reports.

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