Office of Inspector General

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

At a Glance

March 23, 2023

Why We Published This
Compendium

The Infrastructure Investment and
Jobs Act, Pub. L. 117-58 (2021),
more than doubles the
U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency's annual budget each
year over the next five years to
fund water infrastructure,
environmental cleanups, and
electric school buses, largely
through existing programs.
Effective internal controls ensure
that funds are reasonably
protected from fraud, waste,
abuse, or mismanagement.

The purpose of this compendium
is to analyze open and
unresolved recommendations
concerning programs that
received funding under the Act.

Open recommendations are

those with which the EPA agrees
but for which it has not yet
completed corrective actions.

Unresolved recommendations

are those that the EPA disagrees
with; has not provided a formal,
complete, written response to; or
has proposed corrective actions
that have not been agreed upon.

This project supports an EPA
mission-related effort:

•	Operating efficiently and
effectively.

This project addresses a top EPA
management challenge:

•	Managing increased investment
in infrastructure.

Address inquiries to our public
affairs office at (202) 566-2391 or
OIG WEBCOMMENTS@epa.gov.

List of OIG reports.

Compendium of Open and Unresolved
Recommendations Related to
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act-
Funded Programs

What We Found

This compendium focuses on 25 recommendations
(19 open and six unresolved as of December 1,

2022). Most of these recommendations were
identified prior to the passage of the
Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, or IIJA,
which President Joseph R. Biden Jr. signed into
law on November 15, 2021. Although these
recommendations are not IIJA-specific, they
pertain to programs receiving IIJA appropriations and could highlight
areas in which the Agency has an opportunity to prevent potential fraud,
waste, abuse, or mismanagement. These recommendations represent
more than $73 million in potential monetary benefits.

The IIJA appropriates over $60 billion to the EPA for fiscal years 2022
through 2026. According to Congressional Budget Office data as of
December 16, 2022, less than 1 percent of the $60 billion in IIJA funds
had been obligated and expended. Existing open and unresolved
recommendations regarding programs that receive IIJA appropriations
represent areas in which the Agency already lacks internal controls
appropriate to administer these programs economically and efficiently at
their much lower historic funding levels.

The likelihood of fraud, waste, abuse, or mismanagement rises with
significant increases in appropriations over short periods of time. If our
existing recommendations are not timely addressed, the related
programs may face greater risks as they expand under the IIJA's
significant increases in funding and requirements.

The potential for heightened risks also increases the importance of
robust oversight. Under the IIJA, the OIG received funding to conduct
oversight, including audits, evaluations, and investigations, of EPA
programs and funding recipients receiving IIJA funds. In April 2022, the
OIG released our inaugural IIJA oversight plan. We will refine our IIJA
oversight plan as the EPA refines its plans to execute the Act.

In this compendium, we provide a summary of open and unresolved
recommendations in programs that received IIJA funding and a
synopsis of our reporting on "lessons learned" from our analyses of past
reports and recommendations, which have highlighted potential pitfalls
for the EPA to avoid as it implements its responsibilities under the IIJA.

Potential monetary
benefits to the EPA
from implementing
corrective actions
for unimplemented
recommendations
exceed $73 million.

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