Environmental Protection: Status of EPA's Efforts to Create a Central
Information Office (Statement/Record, 04/13/99, GAO/T-RCED-99-147).

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) information management initiatives, focusing
on the: (1) status of EPA's efforts to create a central office
responsible for information management, policy, and technology issues;
and (2) major challenges that the new office needs to address to achieve
success in collecting, using, and disseminating environmental
information.

GAO noted that: (1) EPA estimates that its central information office
will be operational by the end of August 1999 and will have a staff of
about 350 employees; (2) the office will address a broad range of
information policy and technology issues, such as improving the accuracy
of EPA's data, protecting the security of information that EPA
disseminates over the Internet, developing better measures to assess
environmental conditions, and reducing information collection and
reporting burdens; (3) EPA recognizes the importance of developing an
information plan showing the goals of the new office and the means by
which they will be achieved but has not yet established milestones or
target dates for completing such a plan; (4) although EPA has made
progress in determining the organizational structure for the new office,
it has not yet finalized decisions on the office's authorities,
responsibilities, and budgetary needs; (5) EPA has not performed an
analysis to determine the types and the skills of employees that will be
needed to carry out the office's functions; (6) EPA officials told GAO
that decisions on the office's authorities, responsibilities, budget,
and staff will be made before the office is established in August 1999;
(7) on the basis of GAO's prior and ongoing reviews of EPA's information
management problems, GAO believes that the success of the new office
depends on EPA addressing several key challenges as it develops an
information plan, budget, and organizational structure for that office;
and (8) most importantly, EPA needs to: (a) provide the office with the
resources and the expertise necessary to solve the complex information
management, policy, and technology problems facing EPA; (b) empower the
office to overcome organizational challenges to adopting agencywide
information policies and procedures; (c) balance EPA's need for data on
health, the environment, and program outcomes with the call from the
states and regulated industries to reduce their reporting burdens; and
(d) work closely with its state partners to design and implement
improved information management systems.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  T-RCED-99-147
     TITLE:  Environmental Protection: Status of EPA's Efforts to Create 
             a Central Information Office
      DATE:  04/13/99
   SUBJECT:  Information resources management
             Federal agency reorganization
             Government information dissemination
             Strategic information systems planning
             Centralization
             Computer security
             Environmental monitoring
             Data integrity
             Reporting requirements
             Federal/state relations

             
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Cover
================================================================ COVER


Before the Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies,
Committee on Appropriations, House of Representatives

To Be Released
at 9:30 a.m., EDT,
Tuesday
April 13, 1999

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION - STATUS
OF EPA'S EFFORTS TO CREATE A
CENTRAL INFORMATION OFFICE

Statement for the Record by
Peter F.  Guerrero
Director, Environmental Protection Issues,
Resources, Community, and Economic
Development Division

GAO/T-RCED-99-147

GAO/RCED-99-147T


(160484)


Abbreviations
=============================================================== ABBREV

  EPA -

============================================================ Chapter 0

Mr.  Chairman and Members of the Subcommittee: 

We appreciate the opportunity to present this statement for the
record, which discusses our preliminary observations based on our
ongoing work for this Subcommittee concerning the Environmental
Protection Agency's (EPA) information management initiatives. 
Specifically, this statement provides information on (1) the status
of EPA's efforts to create a central office responsible for
information management, policy, and technology issues and (2) the
major challenges that the new office needs to address in order to
achieve success in collecting, using, and disseminating environmental
information.  Our final report will be provided in August 1999. 

EPA estimates that its central information office will be operational
by the end of August 1999 and will have a staff of about 350
employees.  The office will address a broad range of information
policy and technology issues, such as improving the accuracy of EPA's
data, protecting the security of information that EPA disseminates
over the Internet, developing better measures to assess environmental
conditions, and reducing information collection and reporting
burdens.  EPA recognizes the importance of developing an information
plan showing the goals of the new office and the means by which they
will be achieved but has not yet established milestones or target
dates for completing such a plan.  Although EPA has made progress in
determining the organizational structure for the new office, it has
not yet finalized decisions on the office's authorities,
responsibilities, and budgetary needs.  Nor has the agency performed
an analysis to determine the types and the skills of employees that
will be needed to carry out the office's functions.  EPA officials
told us that decisions on the office's authorities, responsibilities,
budget, and staff will be made before the office is established in
August 1999. 

On the basis of our prior and ongoing reviews of EPA's information
management problems, we believe that the success of the new office
depends on the agency's addressing several key challenges as it
develops an information plan, budget, and organizational structure
for that office.  Most importantly, EPA needs to (1) provide the
office with the resources and the expertise necessary to solve the
complex information management, policy, and technology problems
facing the agency; (2) empower the office to overcome organizational
challenges to adopting agencywide information policies and
procedures; (3) balance the agency's need for data on health, the
environment, and program outcomes with the call from the states and
regulated industries to reduce their reporting burdens; and (4) work
closely with its state partners to design and implement improved
information management systems. 


   BACKGROUND
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:1

In October 1998, the EPA Administrator announced plans to create an
office with responsibility for information management, policy, and
technology.  This announcement came after many previous efforts by
EPA to improve information management and after a long history of
concerns that we, the EPA Inspector General, and others have
expressed about the agency's information management activities.  Such
concerns involve the accuracy and completeness of EPA's environmental
data, the fragmentation of the data across many incompatible
databases, and the need for improved measures of program outcomes and
environmental quality. 

The EPA Administrator described the new office as being responsible
for improving the quality of information used within EPA and provided
to the public and for developing and implementing the goals,
standards, and accountability systems needed to bring about these
improvements.  To this end, the information office would (1) ensure
that the quality of data collected and used by EPA is known and
appropriate for its intended uses, (2) reduce the burden of the
states and regulated industries to collect and report data, (3) fill
significant data gaps, and (4) provide the public with integrated
information and statistics on issues related to the environment and
public health.  The office would also have the authority to implement
standards and policies for information resources management and be
responsible for purchasing and operating information technology and
systems. 


   PROGRESS IS BEING MADE, BUT KEY
   QUESTIONS ON RESOURCES AND
   STRATEGIES REMAIN UNRESOLVED
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:2

Under a general framework for the new office that has been approved
by the EPA Administrator, EPA officials have been working for the
past several months to develop recommendations for organizing
existing EPA personnel and resources into the central information
office.  Nonetheless, EPA has not yet developed an information plan
that identifies the office's goals, objectives, and outcomes. 
Although agency officials acknowledge the importance of developing
such a plan, they have not established any milestones for doing so. 
While EPA has made progress in determining the organizational
structure of the office, final decisions have not been made and EPA
has not yet identified the employees and the resources that will be
needed.  Setting up the organizational structure prior to developing
an information plan runs the risk that the organization will not
contain the resources or structure needed to accomplish its goals. 


      INFORMATION PLAN IS NEEDED
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:2.1

Although EPA has articulated both a vision as well as key goals for
its new information office, it has not yet developed an information
plan to show how the agency intends to achieve its vision and goals. 
Given the many important and complex issues on information
management, policy, and technology that face the new office, it will
be extremely important for EPA to establish a clear set of priorities
and resources needed to accomplish them.  Such information is also
essential for EPA to develop realistic budgetary estimates for the
office. 

EPA has indicated that it intends to develop an information plan for
the agency that will provide a better mechanism to effectively and
efficiently plan its information and technology investments on a
multiyear basis.  This plan will be coordinated with EPA ï¿½s
agencywide strategic plan, prepared under the Government Performance
and Results Act.  EPA intends for the plan to reflect the results of
its initiative to improve coordination among the agency's major
activities relating to information on environment and program
outcomes.  It has not yet, however, developed any milestones or
target dates for initiating or completing either the plan or the
coordination initiative. 


      ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE IS
      NOT YET DETERMINED
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:2.2

In early December 1998, the EPA Administrator approved a broad
framework for the new information office and set a goal of completing
the reorganization during the summer of 1999.  Under the framework
approved by the EPA Administrator, the new office will have three
organizational units responsible for (1) information policy and
collection, (2) information technology and services, and (3)
information analysis and access, respectively.  In addition, three
smaller units will provide support in areas such as data quality and
strategic planning. 

A transition team of EPA staff has been tasked with developing
recommendations for the new office's mission and priorities as well
as its detailed organizational and reporting structure.  In
developing these recommendations, the transition team has consulted
with the states, regulated industries, and other stakeholders to
exchange views regarding the vision, goals, priorities, and initial
projects for the office. 

One of the transition team's key responsibilities is to make
recommendations concerning which EPA units should move into the
information office and in which of the three major organizational
units they should go.  To date, the transition team has not finalized
its recommendations on these issues or on how the new office will
operate and the staff it will need. 


      NEEDED RESOURCES ARE STILL
      UNKNOWN
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:2.3

Even though EPA has not yet determined which staff will be moved to
the central information office, the transition team's director told
us that it is expected that the office will have about 350 employees. 
She said that the staffing needs of the office will be met by moving
existing employees in EPA units affected by the reorganization.  The
director said that, once the transition team recommends which EPA
units will become part of the central office, the agency will
determine which staff will be assigned to the office.  She added that
staffing decisions will be completed by July 1999 and the office will
begin functioning sometime in August 1999. 

The funding needs of the new office were not specified in EPA's
fiscal year 2000 budget request to the Congress because the agency
did not have sufficient information on them when the request was
submitted in February 1999.  The director of the transition team told
us that in June 1999 the agency will identify the anticipated
resources that will transfer to the new office from various parts of
EPA.  The agency plans to prepare the fiscal year 2000 operating plan
for the office in October 1999, when EPA has a better idea of the
resources needed to accomplish the responsibilities that the office
will be tasked with during its first year of operation.  The
transition team's director told us that decisions on budget
allocations are particularly difficult to make at the present time
due to the sensitive nature of notifying managers of EPA's various
components that they may lose funds and staff to the new office. 

Furthermore, EPA will soon need to prepare its budget for fiscal year
2001.  According to EPA officials, the Office of the Chief Financial
Officer will coordinate a planning strategy this spring that will
lead to the fiscal year 2001 annual performance plan and proposed
budget, which will be submitted to the Office of Management and
Budget by September 1999. 


   EPA'S NEW INFORMATION OFFICE
   WILL FACE SIGNIFICANT
   CHALLENGES
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:3

The idea of a centralized information office within EPA has been met
with enthusiasm in many corners--not only by state regulators, but
also by representatives of regulated industries, environmental
advocacy groups, and others.  Although the establishment of this
office is seen as an important step in improving how EPA collects,
manages, and disseminates information, the office will face many
challenges, some of which have thwarted previous efforts by EPA to
improve its information management activities.  On the basis of our
prior and ongoing work, we believe that the agency must address these
challenges for the reorganization to significantly improve EPA's
information management activities.  Among the most important of these
challenges are (1) obtaining sufficient resources and expertise to
address the complex information management issues facing the agency;
(2) overcoming problems associated with EPA's decentralized
organizational structure, such as the lack of agencywide information
dissemination policies; (3) balancing the demand for more data with
calls from the states and regulated industries to reduce reporting
burdens; and (4) working effectively with EPA's counterparts in state
government. 


      OBTAINING SUFFICIENT
      RESOURCES AND EXPERTISE
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:3.1

The new organizational structure will offer EPA an opportunity to
better coordinate and prioritize its information initiatives.  The
EPA Administrator and the senior-level officials charged with
creating the new office have expressed their intentions to make
fundamental improvements in how the agency uses information to carry
out its mission to protect human health and the environment.  They
likewise recognize that the reorganization will raise a variety of
complex information policy and technology issues. 

To address the significant challenges facing EPA, the new office will
need significant resources and expertise.  EPA anticipates that the
new office will substantially improve the agency's information
management activities, rather than merely centralize existing efforts
to address information management issues.  Senior EPA officials
responsible for creating the new office anticipate that the
information office will need ï¿½purse strings controlï¿½ over the
agency's resources for information management expenditures in order
to implement its policies, data standards, procedures, and other
decisions agencywide.  For example, one official told us that the new
office should be given veto authority over the development or
modernization of data systems throughout EPA. 

To date, the focus of efforts to create the office has been on what
the agency sees as the more pressing task of determining which
organizational components and staff members should be transferred
into the new office.  While such decisions are clearly important, EPA
also needs to determine whether its current information management
resources, including staff expertise, are sufficient to enable the
new office to achieve its goals. 


      OVERCOMING PROBLEMS
      ASSOCIATED WITH EPA'S
      DECENTRALIZED ORGANIZATIONAL
      STRUCTURE
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:3.2

EPA will need to provide the new office with sufficient authority to
overcome organizational obstacles to adopt agencywide information
policies and procedures.  As we reported last September, EPA has not
yet developed policies and procedures to govern key aspects of its
projects to disseminate information, nor has it developed standards
to assess the data's accuracy and mechanisms to determine and correct
errors.\1

Because EPA does not have agencywide polices regarding the
dissemination of information, program offices have been making their
own, sometimes conflicting decisions about the types of information
to be released and the extent of explanations needed about how data
should be interpreted.  Likewise, although the agency has a quality
assurance program, there is not yet a common understanding across the
agency of what data quality means and how EPA and its state partners
can most effectively ensure that the data used for decision-making
and/or disseminated to the public is of high quality.  To address
such issues, EPA plans to create a Quality Board of senior managers
within the new office in the summer of 1999. 

Although EPA acknowledges its need for agencywide policies governing
information collection, management, and dissemination, it continues
to operate in a decentralized fashion that heightens the difficulty
of developing and implementing agencywide procedures.  EPA's offices
have been given the responsibility and authority to develop and
manage their own data systems for the nearly 30 years since the
agency's creation.  Given this history, overcoming the potential
resistance to centralized policies may be a serious challenge to the
new information office. 


--------------------
\1 Environmental Information:  Agencywide Policies and Procedures Are
Needed for EPA's Information Dissemination (GAO/RCED-98-245, Sept. 
24, 1998). 


      BALANCING THE NEED TO
      COLLECT MORE DATA AND
      EFFORTS TO REDUCE REPORTING
      BURDENS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:3.3

EPA and its state partners in implementing environmental programs
have collected a wealth of environmental data under various statutory
and regulatory authorities.  However, important gaps in the data
exist.  For example, EPA has limited data that are based on (1) the
monitoring of environmental conditions and (2) the exposures of
humans to toxic pollutants.  Furthermore, the human health and
ecological effects of many pollutants are not well understood.  EPA
also needs comprehensive information on environmental conditions and
their changes over time to identify problem areas that are emerging
or that need additional regulatory action or other attention. 

In contrast to the need for more and better data is a call from
states and regulated industries to reduce data management and
reporting burdens.  EPA has recently initiated some efforts in this
regard.  For example, an EPA/state information management workgroup
looking into this issue has proposed an approach to assess
environmental information and data reporting requirements based on
the value of the information compared to the cost of collecting,
managing, and reporting it.  EPA has announced that in the coming
months, its regional offices and the states will be exploring
possibilities for reducing paperwork requirements for EPA's programs,
testing specific initiatives in consultation with EPA's program
offices, and establishing a clearinghouse of successful initiatives
and pilot projects. 

However, overall reductions in reporting burdens have proved
difficult to achieve.  For example, in March 1996, we reported that
while EPA was pursuing a paperwork reduction of 20 million hours, its
overall paperwork burden was actually increasing because of changes
in programs and other factors.\2 The states and regulated industries
have indicated that they will look to EPA's new office to reduce the
burden of reporting requirements. 


--------------------
\2 Environmental Protection:  Assessing EPA's Progress in Paperwork
Reduction (GAO/T-RCED-96-107, March 21, 1996). 


      WORKING MORE EFFECTIVELY
      WITH STATE COUNTERPARTS
-------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:3.4

Although both EPA and the states have recognized the value in
fostering a strong partnership concerning information management,
they also recognize that this will be a challenging task both in
terms of policy and technical issues.  For example, the states vary
significantly in terms of the data they need to manage their
environmental programs, and such differences have complicated the
efforts of EPA and the states to develop common standards to
facilitate data sharing.  The task is even more challenging given
that EPA's various information systems do not use common data
standards.  For example, an individual facility is not identified by
the same code in different systems. 

Given that EPA depends on state regulatory agencies to collect much
of the data it needs and to help ensure the quality of that data, EPA
recognizes the need to work in a close partnership with the states on
a wide variety of information management activities, including the
creation of its new information office.  Some partnerships have
already been created.  For example, EPA and the states are reviewing
reporting burdens to identify areas in which the burden can be
reduced or eliminated.  Under another EPA initiative, the agency is
working with states to create data standards so that environmental
information from various EPA and state databases can be more readily
shared.  Representatives of state environmental agencies and the
Environmental Council of the States have expressed their ideas and
concerns about the role of EPA's new information office and have
frequently reminded EPA that they expect to share with EPA the
responsibility for setting that office's goals, priorities, and
strategies.  According to a Council official, the states have had
more input to the development of the new EPA office than they
typically have had in other major policy issues and the states view
this change as an improvement in their relationship with EPA. 


   OBSERVATIONS
---------------------------------------------------------- Chapter 0:4

Collecting and managing the data that EPA requires to manage its
programs have been a major long-term challenge for the agency.  The
EPA Administrator's recent decision to create a central information
office to make fundamental agencywide improvements in data management
activities is a step in the right direction.  However, creating such
an organization from disparate parts of the agency is a complex
process and substantially improving and integrating EPA's information
systems will be difficult and likely require several years.  To fully
achieve EPA's goals will require high priority within the agency,
including the long-term appropriate resources and commitment of
senior management. 


*** End of document. ***