Office of Inspector General
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
At a Glance
21-P-0241
September 20, 2021
Why We Did This Audit
We performed this audit to
determine whether the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency effectively planned a
long-term solution to address
remote access concerns while
transitioning to the U.S. General
Services Administration's
Enterprise Infrastructure
Solutions contract. This contract
will replace its predecessor
contracts, which expire in
May 2023, forgovernmentwide
network and telecommunications
solution programs.
Remote network access became
mission critical in March 2020 as
the EPA responded to the
coronavirus pandemic.
Continuing operations under the
duress of pandemics and natural
disasters requires the Agency to
adapt its network to support a
virtual workforce.
This audit supports an EPA
mission-related effort:
•	Operating efficiently and
effectively.
This audit addresses these top
EPA management challenges:
•	Maintaining operations during
pandemic and natural disaster
responses.
•	Complying with key internal
control requirements (risk
assessments).
•	Enhancing information
technology security.
Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG WEBCOMMENTS@epa.gov.
List of OIG reports.
EPA Effectively Planned for Future Remote
Access Needs but Should Disconnect
Unneeded Services in Timely Manner
Because the EPA did
not disconnect
unneeded GSA services
in a timely manner, the
Agency paid at least
$7,850 for services it
was not using.
What We Found
The EPA effectively planned a long-term solution
to address remote access concerns while
transitioning to the U.S. General Services
Administration's Enterprise Infrastructure
Solutions contract. Specifically, in its solicitation
for network and telecommunications services
under the EIS contract, the EPA included a
requirement that the selected vendor provide remote access solutions to
support 12,500 concurrent remote users, with the capability to expand to
20,000 concurrent remote users. This range of concurrent remote users should
meet the EPA's future workforce needs, since it exceeds the EPA's fiscal
year 2020 workforce by almost 6,000 users.
During our audit fieldwork, we identified a matter not directly related to our
objective but related to the EPA's transition to the EIS contract. The EPA did
not disconnect GSA services, such as analog phone and digital subscriber
lines, that were no longer needed in a timely manner. Specifically, as part of its
EIS transition activities, which began in 2015, the EPA identified unneeded
GSA services, but as of May 2021, 268 of the services determined to be
unneeded were still not disconnected. In addition, we reviewed eight EPA
disconnection orders for unneeded services and found that it took from one to
61 months to disconnect them. These delays cost the EPA at least $7,850.
The EPA did disconnect over 18,000 of unneeded GSA services from
November 2016 through April 2021. Because the EPA has taken steps to
disconnect unneeded services as part of its EIS transition activities, we make
no recommendations regarding this finding.
The Agency did not provide a formal written response to the draft report.

-------