vt£D ST^

J- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency	11-R-0005

P	~b	r^nn/.vni	October 25,2010

I® I

**i PRO"*4'

•	u• o• i v11 vi 111 ici i lcii n uicui

¦HP \ Office of Inspector General

vSBJ

At a Glance

Catalyst for Improving the Environment

Why We Did This Review

We conducted this audit to
determine whether the U.S.
Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA) has sufficient
qualified contracts and grants
staff to handle American
Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009 work and
non-Recovery Act work.

Background

EPA received $7.2 billion
from the Recovery Act. The
Recovery Act also established
the Recovery Accountability
and Transparency Board.
Among its responsibilities, the
board determines whether
there are sufficient qualified
contract and grant personnel
overseeing funds. EPA
retained $81.5 million of
Recovery Act funds for
management and oversight.

For further information,
contact our Office of
Congressional, Public Affairs
and Management at
(202) 566-2391.

To view the full report,
click on the following link:
www.epa.qov/oiq/reports/2011/
20101025-11 -R-0005.pdf

EPA's Contracts and Grants Workforce
May Face Future Workload Issues

What We Found

EPA should ensure that it has sufficient contracts and grants staff to perform both
the Recovery Act and non-Recovery Act activities. EPA emphasized Recovery
Act activities, resulting in non-Recovery Act activities being delayed or not
completed. The Office of Management and Budget's Recovery Act
implementation guidance states that each agency is responsible for initiating risk
mitigation actions, including evaluating workforce needs. The management and
oversight resource allocations of the Office of Acquisition Management (OAM)
and the Office of Grants and Debarment (OGD) were not always based on
workforce analyses of the actual resources needed to accomplish Recovery Act
activities. Factors such as the funding limitations set forth in the Recovery Act
heavily influenced how Recovery Act management and oversight funds were
distributed. As a result, non-Recovery Act resources were devoted to Recovery
Act activities, leaving less time for staff to focus on non-Recovery Act
administration, monitoring, and oversight.

Unlike OGD, OAM does not have Agency-wide performance measures, thereby
making it difficult to assess the impact of the Recovery Act on its staff and
workload. The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 requires the
Federal Government to establish performance measures. In response to a prior
Office of Inspector General audit recommendation, OAM developed performance
measures for employee job standards that tied in to its strategic goals. However, it
did not develop Agency-wide performance measures for contract functions.
Without Agency-wide performance measures, OAM does not have valuable
information it could use to effectively and efficiently manage its workforce and
workload, and quickly address emerging issues such as impacts from Recovery
Act work.

What We Recommend

We recommend that the Assistant Administrator for Administration and Resources
Management direct OAM and OGD to review the September 30, 2010, metrics and
prepare action plans for any measure that did not meet its goal in 2010. At the exit
conference, EPA stated that if we allowed flexibility for the Agency to determine
what delays would reveal a control weakness, it would agree with the
recommendation. EPA stated that it agreed with the recommendation as it was
revised in the final report. We also recommend that OAM develop and implement
organization-wide performance measures to better manage its activities. OAM
agreed to implement this recommendation.


-------