Two top House Republicans slammed the Environmental Protection Agency Thursday after the release of a report chastising the agency for a lack of management over billions of dollars in grants.
The Government Accountability Office report EPA Has Opportunities to Improve Planning and Compliance Monitoring revealed the EPA hit just two of 17 grant management performance goals set for itself in the five-year period between 2009 and 2013. Grants awarded by the EPA account for about 40 percent of the agency’s budget.
The agency partially met six goals, did not meet one goal and did not measure eight goals.
The report found the lack of oversight limited the agency’s data on compliance, created inefficient processes, decreased access to information, delayed processes for awarding grants, and delayed training and policy implementation.
Following the report’s release, Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Committee, and Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., who chairs the House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, had harsh words for the EPA.
“It is clear from this report that EPA lacks an effective strategy to address long-standing grants management,” the representatives said in a joint statement. “As we look forward into the next year it is crucial that EPA address these problems and implement the recommendations made by GAO to ensure that recipients of these grants are using the funds appropriately to protect public health and the environment.”
“Every taxpayer dollar should be spent with care and proper oversight — EPA must do better,” the added.
Past reports from the Government Accountability Office have shown the EPA had challenges managing grants but also made efforts to address those shortcomings. The agency made progress between 2003 and 2007, but faced new challenges in the subsequent five-year period.
According to the report, one of the big changes was 2009’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The agency said that act is the reason why it decided to not measure five of its performance goals.
The amount of grant money the EPA awarded more than doubled under that law. The EPA awarded $3.9 billion in 2008, and the next year, after the act was passed, it awarded $9.8 billion in grants.
That increased workload meant a decrease in grant management for projects not funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, according to the report.
“EPA had to redirect resources from implementing its grants management plan to meet additional requirements under ARRA,” the report stated. “For example, EPA typically monitors key aspects of grants annually, but for ARRA grants, EPA required routine monitoring every 90 days to support ARRA quarterly reporting requirements and required more in-depth monitoring twice a year.”
The report allowed that the EPA has taken action on 10 of the 17 performance goals related to grant management, such as using technology to track unspent grant funds and when grant reports are submitted.
The agency disagreed with the report’s assertion that there are long-term and ongoing problems with its grant management processes.
“EPA also disagreed with our conclusion that long-standing grants management weaknesses continue to exist, such as tracking environmental results,” the report stated, “and that EPA, with the concurrence of the (inspector general), eliminated long-standing grants management as a material or agency weakness in 2007.”
