Environmental Protection: Status of EPA's Efforts to Create a Central Information Office Page: 4 of 12
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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
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
UnresolvedUnder 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 anGAO/T-RCED-99-147
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United States. General Accounting Office. Environmental Protection: Status of EPA's Efforts to Create a Central Information Office, text, April 13, 1999; Washington D.C.. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc301739/m1/4/: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.