Why We Did This Report
The Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, requires each inspector general to prepare semiannual reports for Congress. As part of that reporting, the inspector general must identify all recommendations from the prior reporting period for which corrective actions have not been completed by the agency, as well as any management decisions with respect to audit, inspection, or evaluation reports issued during that prior reporting period.
Summary of Findings
For this compendium, we compiled recommendations that we had reported as resolved in the semiannual report to Congress that we issued on May 30, 2025. These 80 recommendations were originally issued to the EPA over a span of more than 15 years, from fiscal year 2008 through fiscal year 2024. As of May 31, 2025, 78 of those recommendations remained open, representing $43.3 million in potential cost savings. Of these 78 recommendations, 43 recommendations, with $33.3 million in potential cost savings, remained open after three years or will be older than three years by their expected completion dates. Additionally, 15 recommendations that were issued in reports between July 2022 and May 31, 2025, remain unresolved. We also identified 13 recommendations, 12 resolved and one unresolved, with potential monetary benefits of nearly $865.8 million, that we deem as high priority.