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.	.	U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	20-E-0333
£	\	Office of Inspector General	September 28,2020
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At a Glance
Why We Did This Project
The U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's Office of
Inspector General conducted
this evaluation to determine
whether the EPA has
implemented an oversight
system to provide reasonable
assurance that organizations
receiving EPA funding comply
with Title VI of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964. All federal agencies
are responsible for enforcing
Title VI, which requires them to
ensure that any program or
activity receiving federal
financial assistance does not
discriminate based on race,
color, or national origin. The
public can use the Title VI
complaint process to report
alleged discrimination by EPA
funding recipients. Under this
process, the EPA's External
Civil Rights Compliance Office,
known as ECRCO, has the
authority to withdraw financial
assistance to compel a recipient
to comply with Title VI.
This report addresses the
following:
•	Compliance with the law.
•	Operating efficiently and
effectively.
This report addresses these top
EPA management challenges:
•	Integrating and leading
environmental justice.
•	Complying with internal control
(policies and procedures).
Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG WEBCOMMENTS@epa.gov.
Improved EPA Oversight of Funding Recipients'
Title VI Programs Could Prevent Discrimination
Despite elimination of
the case backlog,
additional improvements
in the EPA's oversight of
Title VI funding
recipients could prevent
discrimination.
What We Found
ECRCO has not fully implemented an oversight
system to provide reasonable assurance that
organizations receiving EPA funding are properly
implementing Title VI. As an initial matter, ECRCO
does not conduct proactive compliance reviews to
determine funding recipients' compliance with
Title VI. Instead, only once an investigation has been
lodged will ECRCO review the foundational
elements of the recipient's nondiscrimination program using a checklist. This
checklist documents the existence of a nondiscrimination program but does not
necessarily document the successful implementation of Title VI. We used the
checklist to conduct a limited review of the nondiscrimination programs in all
50 states and three territories. We found that 81 percent lacked some of the
required foundational elements on their websites. Meanwhile, ECRCO does not
systematically collect program data from EPA funding recipients, and state
personnel told us they need training and guidance to help them address
discrimination complaints related to permits and cumulative impacts. Three of the
seven states we interviewed indicated that they had not received training from
ECRCO.
Since ECRCO assumed management of the EPA's Title VI program in
December 2016, it has focused its efforts on reducing a significant backlog of
discrimination complaints while simultaneously developing policy and guidance
documents. It resolved a backlog of 61 cases from fiscal years 2017 through
2019. Improved oversight could prevent future case backlogs at the EPA and help
assure funding recipients comply with Title VI.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
To improve oversight of the Title VI program, we recommend that the Office of the
Administrator develop a plan to coordinate across Agency program offices to
develop guidance on permitting and cumulative impacts. We also recommend that
ECRCO use systematic compliance reviews, develop performance measures to
assess its ongoing pilot program working with the states on foundational elements
of nondiscrimination, address potential noncompliance with funding applicants,
develop guidance on the use of data collection, and outline a plan to ensure that
the staff take Title VI training. The Agency did not provide a formal response to
our draft report but did provide informal written technical comments. We
considered the comments and revised the report, as appropriate. The EPA intends
to issue a formal response to this report, which we will post on our website upon
receipt. The six recommendations are unresolved.
List of OIG reports.

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