Office of Inspector General
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
At a Glance
21-P-0192
August 9, 2021
Why We Did This Audit
We conducted an audit of the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's use of blanket purchase
agreements to determine whether:
•	The EPA's blanket purchase
agreements comply with
applicable laws, regulations,
contract provisions, and other
requirements.
•	The EPA maximizes its use of
current blanket purchase
agreements to achieve
savings and whether other
blanket purchase agreement
opportunities exist.
Government agencies use blanket
purchase agreements to pay for
supplies and services that they
purchase from approved sources
on a repetitive basis. The EPA
uses two types:
•	U.S. General Services
Administration Schedule
blanket purchase agreements.
•	EPA-specific blanket
purchase agreements.
The Agency's blanket purchase
agreement expenses in 2019
totaled $36 million.
This audit supports an EPA
mission-related effort:
•	Operating efficiently and
effectively.
This audit addresses a top EPA
management challenge:
•	Complying with key internal
control requirements (policies
and procedures).
Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG WEBCOMMENTS@epa.gov.
List of OIG reports.
EPA Should Improve Compliance with
Blanket Purchase Agreement Requirements
What We Found
Of the six blanket purchase agreement, or BPA,
orders that we reviewed, which accounted for
$16.9 million in annual obligations, none fully
complied with all applicable Federal Acquisition
Regulation requirements, EPA Acquisition Guide
requirements, and Office of Management and
Budget BPA recommendations. Specifically, the
EPA did not:
The EPA could achieve
cost savings and
potentially put Agency
funds to better use by
improving compliance
with BPA requirements.
•	Maintain electronic records to provide a complete history of acquisitions
under the BPAs.
•	Perform adequate acquisition planning, such as documenting Advanced
Procurement Plans and determining contract types.
•	Document approvals for decisions to use noncommon contract solutions.
•	Perform required annual reviews.
•	Maximize competition; ensure price reasonableness; or negotiate lower
prices, when appropriate.
We could not determine compliance for some requirements because of a lack
of access to hard-copy Agency documentation, as EPA employees were
working remotely because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, EPA policy
requires that all records be maintained electronically.
The deficiencies listed above occurred because Office of Mission Support
management did not verify contracting officers' compliance with federal
requirements and recommendations. Noncompliance with Federal Acquisition
Regulation requirements, EPA Acquisition Guide requirements, and Office of
Management and Budget recommendations hinders effective and sound EPA
contract management of BPAs and may decrease potential cost savings. For
example, the Agency did not negotiate lower prices with vendors for individual
orders issued, as recommended by the Office of Management and Budget.
Just a 1 percent discount on all 2019 BPA orders would have resulted in cost
savings of $364,000.
Recommendations and Planned Agency Corrective Actions
We recommend that the assistant administrator for Mission Support verify that
contracting officers perform and document annual reviews; request vendor
price discounts on all BPA orders; and determine whether a single-award BPA
is appropriate for new agreements. All recommendations are resolved with
corrective actions pending.

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