Inspector General

What this funds

The Agency notes that FY 2026 levels are estimates and subject to refinement based on Administration priorities. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Inspector General, or OIG, is an independent office that receives a separate appropriation within the EPA's budget. The mission of the OIG is to drive change by fighting fraud, promoting ethical conduct, and recommending improvement in the environmental space. To this end, the OIG conducts and supervises independent audits, evaluations, inspections, and investigations while reviewing existing and proposed legislation and regulations relating to the programs and operations of EPA and the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board, or CSB, including the Superfund program, as applicable. The OIG further provides leadership and coordination related to oversight functions, including the OIG Hotline and whistleblower resources; makes evidence-based policy recommendations; and works to prevent and detect waste, fraud, and abuse in Agency, grantee, and contractor operations of the Audits: The OIG Office of Audit, or OA, is responsible for conducting financial and performance audits of EPA's and the CSB's programs and operations including the Superfund program. The OA complies with generally accepted government auditing standards, as applicable based upon the work performed. The OA conducts performance audits to assess the economy, efficiency, internal control, and compliance of EPA business operations and programs. In addition, the OA conducts a minimum of ten statutorily mandated2 audits each year, including financial audits of EPA's and the CSB's financial statements as required by the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, as well as audits of EPA's and the CSB's information security practices as required by the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. 2 Statue citations for mandated audits include: Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, 31 U.S.C. ' 3521(e); Federal Insecticide, Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act, 15 U.S.C. ' 2625(b)(3)(D)(iii); Hazardous Waste Electronic Investigations: The OIG Office of Investigations, or OI, is the oversight component responsible for investigating allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse related to EPA and CSB programs and operations, including those funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act and Superfund. Pursuant to the Inspector General Act, 5 U.S.C. ' 406(f), OI special agents have statutory law enforcement authority to conduct criminal investigations, including carrying a firearm; making an arrest without a warrant while engaged in official duties or as expressly authorized by the attorney general for any offense against the United States committed in the presence of the agent, as well as for any felony cognizable under the laws of the United States; and seeking and executing warrants for arrest, search of premises, or seizure of evidence upon probable cause to believe a violation has been committed. OI special agents are authorized to conduct civil and administrative investigations often done in coordination with the U.S. Department of Justice and with various other federal and state law enforcement organizations. With a geographical area of responsibility spanning from the Northern Mariana Islands to Maine and Alaska to the U.S. Virgin Islands, the OI leverages a data- and intelligence-driven framework Evaluations and Inspections: The OIG Office of Special Review and Evaluation, or OSRE, is responsible for evaluating and inspecting the effectiveness of EPA's and the CSB's programs including the Superfund program. Its oversight projects focus on the efficiency and effectiveness of program operations; promote economy, efficiency, and effectiveness in the administration of EPA's programs; and result in waste avoidance, improvements to Agency procedures and guidance documents, increased transparency into regulatory and other decision-making, and eliminated barriers and improved program outcomes. Oversight activities are conducted in compliance with the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency's, or CIGIE, Quality Standards for Inspection and Evaluation. Evaluations and inspections span all EPA regional and program offices, including the Superfund Program, as well as EPA's state, Tribal, and local partners. Administrative Investigations: The OIG Administrative Investigations Directorate, or AID, located within OSRE, conducts statutorily mandated civil and administrative investigations, including whistleblower reprisal investigations that are statutorily required under 41 U.S.C. ' 4712, as well as allegations of misconduct by senior Agency and CSB employees, contractors, subcontractors, grantees, subgrantees, or personal services contractors. The AID performs special reviews that involve a suspected or alleged violation of law, regulation, or policy, as well as allegations of serious mismanagement. The AID also manages the OIG Hotline, which is statutorily required under the Inspector General Act of 1978, as amended, and is the OIG's primary method of receiving complaints of fraud, waste, and abuse. Along with select evaluation staff, the AID regularly meets with EPA's scientific integrity personnel, updates coordination procedures between the OIG and EPA's Scientific Integrity Officials, and reviews documents to make EPA aware of all identified allegations of violations of its Scientific Integrity Policy. Data Analytics: The Data Analytics Directorate, or DAD, located within the Office of Data, Analysis, and Technology leverages advanced analytics to identify key risk areas to EPA or CSB program integrity. DAD automates the acquisition, transformation, and analysis of large and disparate datasets to support audits, evaluations, and investigations. It also provides support for statistical sampling and survey creation for audits and evaluations. DAD's oversight products visualize3 the extent of EPA programs and operations. DAD further supports the OIG's proactive oversight efforts with its data analytical capabilities to generate investigative leads for agents, AI platforms for machine learning programs to detect potential fraud, and penetration and vulnerability testing for cybersecurity oversight of EPA systems. OIG Support: The OIG and its oversight programs are supported by the Office of Counsel; the Office of Congressional and Public Affairs; the Office of Data, Analysis, and Technology; and the Office of Mission Support. These offices provide legal, professional, and technical support; support the recruitment, retention, and training of the OIG's employees; manage public outreach efforts and congressional and public engagements; and inform the public about OIG activities. FY 2027 Activities and Performance Plan: The OIG is statutorily mandated to prepare an annual statement summarizing "the most serious management and performance challenges facing the agency" and to assess the Agency's progress in addressing those challenges. The OIG also maintains responsibility for 19 significant required and FISMA audits, and for work requested by Congress or resulting from an OIG Hotline contact. In FY 2027, the OIG will continue to target initiatives addressing the Superfund program and its operations. The OIG also will continue its oversight of EPA's implementation of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. FY 2027 resources and activities will focus on implementing cost-saving strategies, such as AI and other business automation tools, to create process impro

Extracted from Environmental Protection Agency, p. 15. Verbatim; nothing here is paraphrased.

Contracts funded by this line

7 linked contracts. These are obligations — lifetime awarded money — and they are not comparable to the request above and are never added to it. No total is shown: an award linked to several lines is counted in full on each, so the sum would not be a fact.

Confidence mix · 7 certain

Linked contracts are a floor, not a census. Coverage is bounded by how distinctively a program is named and, for performer links, to RDT&E and Procurement — O&M and military construction publish no performers. Budget figures are FY2027 request dollars; contract figures are obligations. The two measure different things and must never be summed together.

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Answers come from the figures on this page and nothing else. These dollars are parsed from EPA's Congressional Justification and are approximate — confirm anything that matters against the cited page.