Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today the release of a report examining the Environment and Natural Resources Division’s (ENRD) Superfund Activities for Fiscal Year (FY) 2018. The DOJ Office of the Inspector General concluded that the ENRD provided an equitable distribution of costs to FY 2018 Superfund cases. However, we identified one case that was incorrectly classified as a Superfund case, which resulted in $164,087 in unallowable expenses that were billed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (known as CERCLA or Superfund), established the Superfund program to clean up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites. Within the Department of Justice, the ENRD enforces CERCLA’s civil and criminal pollution-control laws. We conducted an audit to determine if the cost allocation process used by the ENRD and its contractor provided an equitable distribution of total labor costs, other direct costs, and indirect costs to Superfund cases from FY 2018. To accomplish this objective, we assessed Superfund case designation, costs distributed to these cases, and the adequacy of the internal controls over the recording of charges to Superfund cases.
Today’s report makes two recommendations pertaining to ENRD addressing $164,087 in erroneous charges billed to the EPA. The ENRD agreed with both recommendations.