The Environmental Protection Agency is still having problems
identifying and achieving environmental results from its
grants, which represent $4 billion annually, or about half
of its budget, the Governmental Accountability Office has
said.
It said EPA still does not consistently ensure that grants
are clearly linked to environmental outcomes as specified
in the recipients’ work plans demonstrating how the funds
will be used. Less than one third in 2003 identified
anticipated environmental outcomes.
The Office of Management and Budget recently reviewed 10
EPA grant programs and found 8 of them did not demonstrate
results.
EPA’s progress in addressing problems in achieving
environmental results from grants to this point has been
slower and more limited than planned, said GAO.
It said EPA had planned to issue an outcome policy in 2003
but that it had been delayed until fall of 2004 and won’t be
in effect until January of 2005. EPA’s interim policy
requires program offices to link grants to its strategic
goals, but not environmental outcomes.
As a result, EPA officials do not expect to meet the
five-year plan’s first year target for the goal’s performance
measure, said GAO.
It said EPA’s forthcoming draft policy addresses environmental
outcomes in grants through awards, monitoring and reporting,
though successful implementation will require extensive
training of agency personnel and broad based education of
literally thousands of grantees. GAO-04-983T
