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° *. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	21-P-0131
i W \ Office of Inspector General	May 12,2021
At a Glance
Why We Did This Audit
As a result of an OIG Hotline
complaint, we conducted an
audit of the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency's Office of
Enforcement and Compliance
Assurance, specifically, the
Office of Criminal Enforcement,
Forensics, and Training and its
National Enforcement
Investigations Center. We
conducted this audit to
determine whether OCEFT and
NEIC are addressing findings
and implementing corrective
actions from prior internal and
external audits, inspections,
and documented concerns
related to NEIC.
OCEFT is a federal law
enforcement entity that pursues
criminal violators of air, water,
and hazardous waste pollution
laws. NEIC provides forensic,
scientific, and technical support
for EPA criminal and civil
environmental investigations.
This audit addresses the
following:
•	Operating efficiently and
effectively.
This audit addresses a top EPA
management challenge:
•	Improving workforce/workload
analyses.
Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG WEBCOMMENTS@epa.gov.
List of OIG reports.
Staffing Constraints, Safety and Health Concerns at
EPA's National Enforcement Investigations Center
May Compromise Ability to Achieve Mission
Safety, health, and attrition
issues may compromise
NEIC's ability to support the
EPA's civil and criminal
enforcement efforts.
What We Found
NEIC has addressed internal and external
findings and implemented corrective actions
related to safety and health, yet concerns
persist. These concerns include unconducted
internal safety and health audits and
management reviews, hazardous waste
mismanagement, noncompliance with safety procedures, and staff concerns
about safety and health at NEIC.
NEIC is addressing findings and implementing corrective actions related to its
Quality Management System, which is designed to generate scientifically sound
and legally defensible information to support environmental enforcement. We
found that NEIC should improve tracking issues, such as observations,
comments, concerns, and opportunities for improvement identified from audits;
management review action items; and customer complaints.
NEIC had unresolved action items from OCEFT's Professional Integrity and
Quality Assurance unit's 2017 inspection report related to staffing shortages, trust
in management, and hazardous waste management. OCEFT did not conduct a
follow-up review to examine the effectiveness of the implemented corrective
actions. In 2020, as a result of an inspection by the State of Colorado, NEIC was
cited for several hazardous waste violations. Further, NEIC's 2019 Federal
Employee Viewpoint Survey results are 22 percent lower than the EPA's
averages for questions related to management and work environment.
NEIC has been challenged by high attrition rates among staff and the inability to
backfill vacant positions since 2016. If staffing levels continue to fall, NEIC risks a
reduction in analytical capabilities and the ability to accomplish its mission.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We made ten recommendations to the assistant administrator for Enforcement
and Compliance Assurance, including developing a process for OCEFT to follow
up on inspection findings and confirm whether corrective actions effectively
address findings, as well as developing metrics on safety, health, and work
environment to incorporate into NEIC management performance evaluations. The
Agency agreed with seven recommendations and disagreed with three
recommendations. We consider three recommendations resolved, two completed,
and five unresolved. The Agency's response to our draft report illustrates that it
does not fully understand or appreciate federal Office of Inspector General audit
processes and standards. We stand by our conclusions and recommendations.

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