GAO-01-36R EPA IG Training

United States General Accounting Office

Washington, DC 20548

October 20, 2000

The Honorable Susan M. Collins

Chairman

Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations

Committee on Governmental Affairs

United States Senate

Subject: Training at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of

Inspector General

Dear Ms. Chairman:

Your letter of February 4, 2000, asked us to provide information about certain

activities of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General (EPA

IG). As agreed with your staff we focused on the training provided to the IG staff

during fiscal years 1998 and 1999. Specifically, we agreed to provide information

regarding (1) EPA IG’s compliance with professional standards for continuing

professional education, (2) the cost of the training, (3) EPA IG’s reasons for providing

four new training courses, and (4) EPA IG’s plans for future training.

Scope and Methodology

To review EPA IG’s compliance with standards we obtained the results of the

recently completed peer review1of the IG’s audit activities performed by the

Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General (HHS IG).

We also obtained data regarding the cost of training for fiscal years 1998 and 1999, as

reported by EPA IG’s budget office. As a benchmark, we compared the fiscal year

1998 EPA IG costs to those in the American Society for Training and Development’s

(ASTD) report entitled The 2000 ASTD State of the Industry Report, which provided

information on the training activities of 1,200 organizations for fiscal year 1998.

ASTD had not yet developed comparable data for fiscal year 1999. The cost

information reported by EPA IG and ASTD included the costs for contractors, tuition,

and travel and did not include the salaries of employees taking the training. Because

the organizations surveyed by ASTD vary widely in purpose and in the size of their

budgets, their training costs are compared as a percentage of their payrolls. In order

1

Peer review, as required by Government Auditing Standards, is an external quality control review

performed at least once every 3 years by an organization not affiliated with the organization being

reviewed. The peer review should determine whether the organization’s internal quality control

system is in place and operating effectively to provide reasonable assurance that established policies

and procedures and applicable auditing standards are being followed.
Page 2 GAO-01-36R EPA IG Training

to gain a similar perspective regarding EPA IG’s training costs, we obtained the EPA

IG’s payroll cost for fiscal year 1998, calculated the percentage of training cost to

payroll, and compared this percentage to the average calculated by ASTD. We

requested the IG’s rationale for the training provided, obtained descriptions of the

four new training courses, and ascertained the IG’s training plans for fiscal years 2000

and 2001, through interviews with the IG and the training staff. We did not audit the

training information or cost data provided by EPA IG nor did we validate the results

of the ASTD report.

We conducted our work from May through August 2000 at EPA headquarters in

accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Results in Brief

EPA IG provided training to the staff, which, as a recent peer review concluded, is

part of a system of quality control that provides reasonable assurance that staff

conform with professional standards. The reported cost of this training was about

$630,000 in fiscal year 1998 and about $970,000 in fiscal year 1999. For fiscal year

1998, EPA IG’s reported training costs were about 2 percent of its payroll costs,

which is in line with the 2 percent average reported by ASTD for public and private

sector organizations. For fiscal year 1999, EPA IG’s reported training costs rose to 3

percent of payroll costs. Included in the training costs were four new courses

provided to all IG staff. The new courses covered topics such as leadership, quality,

effectiveness, and performance. Also, the IG plans to include additional

management-related and technical training courses for the staff over the next 2 years

and to conduct a skills inventory of the staff to identify any gaps that can be

addressed by training.

Compliance With Standards

Auditors conducting audits of government organizations, programs, activities, and

functions are required to comply with the Comptroller General’s Government

Auditing Standards. These standards state that audit staff should collectively possess

adequate professional proficiency for the tasks required. To meet these standards the

audit organization is required to maintain professional proficiency through continuing

education and training. The audit organization is responsible for (1) establishing and

implementing a program to ensure that auditors meet the continuing education and

training requirements and (2) maintaining documentation confirming that the

requirements were met.

Specifically, among other requirements, each auditor is required to complete at least

80 hours of continuing education and training every 2 years, which contributes to the

auditor’s professional proficiency. At least 20 hours are to be completed in any one

year of the 2-year period, and those responsible for planning, directing, reporting, or

conducting substantial portions of the audit are required to complete at least 24 of

the 80 hours in training directly related to government issues. EPA IG provides

technical training to keep the auditors' skills current (see enclosure I) and recently

added four new courses for all IG staff (see enclosure II).
Page 3 GAO-01-36R EPA IG Training

A peer review performed by the HHS IG, which included a test of compliance with

continuing education requirements, concluded that EPA IG’s system of quality

control for the year ended September 30, 1999, provided reasonable assurance that

EPA IG staff conformed with professional standards. However, the peer review also

concluded that documentation of the completed training was not consistently

maintained. For example, in a test of individual training records, HHS IG found that

not all auditors were able to provide documentation of the training they had received

and that complete records of training were not always maintained. To address this

issue, EPA IG has agreed to improve continuing professional education

documentation through a tracking system that will ensure proper documentation of

all training.

EPA IG investigators follow the training guidelines in the Quality Standards for

Investigations developed by the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency.2

As

with the standards for auditors, investigators are required to collectively possess

professional proficiency for the tasks required. However, no specific amount of

training is specified for the investigators’ professional development. Therefore,

investigator training is intended to be a continuing process to develop professionally

qualified investigators and supervisors. While the investigators acknowledged that

they have no requirement to obtain a specified number of training hours, they have

been included in the IG’s additional training classes and continue to attend technical

training courses. (See enclosure I.)

IG Reported Training Costs for Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999

As shown in table 1, EPA IG’s reported training costs were $629,688 in fiscal year

1998 and $967,804 in fiscal year 1999.

Table 1: EPA IG Fiscal Year 1998 and 1999 Reported Training Costs

Training provided Fiscal year 1998 Fiscal year 1999

Technical training costs $613,660 $567,089

Cost of four new courses $ 16,028 $400,715

Total training costs $629,688 $967,804

Note: Training costs include costs for contractors, tuition, and travel.

Source: Unaudited EPA IG budget information.

We compared the EPA IG’s reported training costs with the costs reported in The

2000 ASTD State of the Industry Report. For fiscal year 1998, the training costs of the

organizations surveyed by ASTD averaged 2 percent of their payrolls. Likewise, EPA

IG’s reported training costs were 2 percent of payroll costs. While there is no

comparable data from ASTD for fiscal year 1999, EPA IG’s reported training costs

increased to 3 percent of payroll.

EPA IG added four new training courses during fiscal years 1998 and 1999, to address

its changing mission and role. The IG referred to the four courses as high2

The President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency is an interagency council principally composed of

IGs, and is charged with promoting the integrity and effectiveness of federal programs. It was

established by Executive Order No. 12301 in 1981, and revised by Executive Order No. 12805 in 1992 to

reflect changes that had been made in the Inspector General Act (Public Law 95-452), as amended.
Page 4 GAO-01-36R EPA IG Training

performance organization (HPO) training, which is intended to provide the IG staff

with an understanding of why the mission of the office must change and how the staff

can contribute to the new oversight role. The IG explained that this new role will

require the staff to work more closely with EPA managers in order to better

understand program controls and activities that are not working effectively, develop

solutions that will correct long-standing problems, and assist EPA in agencywide

efforts to measure performance.

The IG hopes that with HPO training, the staff will not only identify matters of fraud,

waste, and abuse that have traditionally been the subject of IG reports, but also

provide meaningful recommendations that can ultimately eliminate these and other

systemic problems that have been reported repeatedly by IGs over the years. To

achieve this, the training is intended to instruct the staff in how to prepare informed

reviews and assessments that are aimed at improving the performance of EPA’s

activities, operations, and offices.

The IG explained that the training plan for fiscal years 2000 and 2001 includes

additional courses that address EPA IG’s changing mission and role. Specifically, the

IG plans training that will address the needs of new employees, team building for all

employees, project management for senior managers, program evaluation, activitybased costing, process management, benchmarking, and reengineering. Over the

next 2 years, the IG plans to spend as much as $2.4 million on training, which is

almost a 50 percent increase over the combined training costs for fiscal years 1998

and 1999. The IG recently studied our internal knowledge and skills inventory

process,3 which is designed to determine the available competencies and skills, as

well as evidence of any gaps, at GAO. Using this process, the IG intends to develop a

knowledge and skills inventory that can be used to help plan training in the future.

-----

At the end of our fieldwork, EPA IG officials reviewed a draft of this letter and

concurred with our results.

3

GAO Knowledge and Skills Inventory System.
Page 5 GAO-01-36R EPA IG Training

We are sending copies of this letter to Senator Carl Levin, Ranking Minority Member

of your Subcommittee, and to Senator Fred Thompson, Chairman, and Senator

Joseph I. Lieberman, Ranking Minority Member, Senate Committee on Governmental

Affairs. We are also sending copies to the Honorable Nikki L. Tinsley, Inspector

General of the Environmental Protection Agency. If you have any questions, please

contact me at (202) 512-2600; Jeanette Franzel, Acting Director, at (202) 512-9406; or

Jackson Hufnagle, Assistant Director, at (202) 512-9470.

Sincerely yours,

Jeffrey C. Steinhoff

Managing Director

Financial Management and Assurance

Enclosures
Enclosure I

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Technical Training Provided to EPA IG Staff, Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999

Auditor training

Fiscal year 1998 Fiscal year 1999

New Auditor-in-Charge

Writing Value-Added Audit Reports

Intergovernmental Audit Forum

Professional Development Conference

Federal Financial Auditing

Contract and Procurement Fraud

Contract Auditing

Acquisition Training

Auditing GPRA

Governmental Financial Accounting

Basic Auditor Training

Effective Briefing Techniques

Fraud Symposium

Introductory Auditor Training

Assessing Controls – Performance Audits

Surveys: Concept and Development

Audit, Consulting, and Advisory Services

Government Audit: Planning to Reporting

How to Handle People With Tact and Skill

Troubleshooting and Maintaining PCs

Assessing Reliability of Computer Data

Budget Formulation

Advanced Auditing Tools and Techniques

Focusing First on Performance Results

Investigator training, fiscal years 1998 and 1999

Suspension and Debarment

National Intelligence Academy Executive Conference

Budget Technical Workshop

Blacks in Government National Training Conference

Criminal Investigator’s Legal Training

Street Survival

Firearms Training

Fraud Awareness

National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Conference

Women in Federal Law Enforcement Conference

Barretta Armorers School Training

Conference on Environmental Crime

National and State Asbestos Seminar

LAN Administrator Training

Other training, fiscal years 1998 and 1999

Position Description Symposium

Developing Audit Reports

Freedom of Information Act Course

Budget Execution

PC Certification

Microsoft Support

Preparation and Review of Personnel Actions

Microsoft Front Page

Strategic Compensation

Appropriation Law Seminar

Personnel Security Review Training
Enclosure II

Page 7 GAO-01-36R EPA IG Training

Information on Four New Training Courses

The following table provides the IG’s description of four training courses that

were added during fiscal years 1998 and 1999 to prepare EPA IG staff for a

changing mission and oversight role.

The Science of Leadership and the Art of Gaining Followers

This course is intended to enhance staff members’ knowledge and understanding of the leadership role and to

further develop individual leadership skills and abilities.

Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award Criteria

The course presents the model of an effective business, which includes an analysis of the seven categories in

the Baldrige quality award criteria and their application for organizational improvements.

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People

The course offers principles of human effectiveness, describes the seven habits of effective people, and

discusses their relationship. The course is intended to instruct staff members on how to effectively use the

seven habits to solve problems, maximize opportunities, and continually learn and integrate other principles for

growth.

Building High-Performance Organizations for the Twenty-First Century

This course addresses the theory and practice of large-scale organizational change. It also illustrates why

some organizations are high performers and how to move an organization toward higher performance.

(911950)