^tDSX * Q \ iSi %PR0^0 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General At a Glance 21-N-0191 August 4, 2021 Why We Published This Compendium Section 5 of the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended (5 U.S.C. App. 3), requires each inspector general to prepare semiannual reports for Congress, which must include "an identification of each significant recommendation described in previous semi-annual reports on which corrective action has not been completed." The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General is publishing this compendium to analyze the open and unresolved recommendations listed in the semiannual report covering our work from October 1, 2020, through March 31, 2021. Our intention is to update this compendium annually. Open recommendations are those that the EPA and the OIG agree on but that have not yet been completed. This includes recommendations with corrective actions past due or due in the future. Unresolved recommendations are those that the Agency and the OIG do not agree on. This includes disagreement on either the recommendation itself or the proposed corrective action. Compendium of Open and Unresolved Recommendations: Data as of March 31, 2021 What We Found From March 2017 through March 2021, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Inspector General issued nine semiannual reports to Congress that identified an average of 99 open recommendations and 18 unresolved recommendations issued by the OIG to the EPA. The total potential monetary benefit was, on average, $167 million for the open recommendations and $7.5 million for the unresolved recommendations. This compendium focuses on the 111 open and 25 unresolved recommendations identified in OIG Report No. EPA-350-R-21-001. Semiannual Report to Congress: October 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021, issued May 29, 2021. In this compendium, we also discuss: • The relationship of the open and unresolved recommendations to the EPA's top management challenges, which we detail in OIG Report No. 20-N-0231. EPA's FYs 2020-2021 Management Challenges, issued July 21, 2020. • Fourteen high-priority open or unresolved recommendations presented to the EPA in April 2021. • The breakdown of open recommendations by program office and region. • The human health, environmental, administrative, and business benefits of the open recommendations. As of March 31, 2021, there were 48 open recommendations to improve human health and the environment and 63 recommendations to improve administrative and business functions. • Open recommendations that are at least three years old, as well as corrective actions that are not scheduled to be completed within three years of their issuance. Address inquiries to our public affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or OIG WEBCOMMENTS@epa.gov. List of OIG reports. ------- |