epa response

8/4/2019 EPA Response

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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCYWASHINGTON, D.C. 20460

The Honorable Darrell IssaChainnan, Committee on Oversightand Government ReformHouse ofRepresentativesWashington, D.C. 20515Dear Mr. Chairman:

APR 1 5 2011OFFICE OFCHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your March 8, 2011 letter requesting theEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA) provide answers to questions on our electronic systems.The questions related to the systems we use at our agency to support business and accountingfunctions; grants and loans management; contracts management; and reporting to governmentwide systems such as USASpending.gov and Recovery.gov are addressed in the encloseddocument.

We hope this response provides the details to meet your information needs. If you haveany questions about the response, please have your staff contact Clara Jones in EPA's Office ofCongressional and Intergovernmental Relations at (202) 564-3701 or [email protected].


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Responses to Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - Financial Systems

The Committee on Oversight and Government Reform ("Committee") is the principal oversightcommittee in the House of Representatives and has broad oversight jurisdiction as set forth inHouse Rule X. To enable the Committee to perform oversight of the federal government'sattempts to modernize its financial management systems they have requested the answers to thebelow 23 questions.' '1. Identify and briefly describe each of your agency's business and accounting systems. Ifseparate divisions, bureaus, or offices of your agency use separate systems, identify whichdivisions, bureaus, or offices use each system.The Integrated Financial Management System (IFMS) has been EPA's core financialmanagement'system since 1989. IFMS supports core budget execution and accounting functions;including posting updates to ledgers and tables as transactions are processed and generatingsource data for the preparation of financial statements and budgetary reports. IFMS is usedthroughout EPA.The Budget Automation System' (BAS) integrates the Agency's budget planning, execution, andreporting, and tracks progress towards meeting the requirementsof the GPRA. BAS is primarilyused by the Office of Budget in the Office o f ~ h e Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) and all EPAregional offices.The Superfund Cost Recovery P a c k a g ~ Imaging. Online System (SCORPIOS) assists EPA in therecovery of Superfund site-specific cleanup costs by 'summarizing the funds thatEPA has spentcleaning up a Superfund site. SCORPIOS is used byEPA's Office of the Chief FinancialOfficer,' EPA's Chief Information Officer, Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance,Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response and' allEPA regional offices.The Property Inventory System transmits scanned barcode and decal data to confirmand trackagency property. This system also supports day-to-day property management a ~ t i v i . t i e s , such asproperty assignments, transfers, and disposals to provide accountability and resource reutilization


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Responses to Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - Financial Systemspurchase card transactions and allocates transactions for processing into IFMS. The FellowshipPayment System (FPS) records payment schedules for fellowship recipients and prepares stipendand tuition payments 'to students and universities. The Interagency .Doc Online Tracking System'(IDOTS) tracks payments for interagency agreements. EPA's fina1)ce centers are the principaluser base for these payment systems. The Web-based Ordering System (WEBOS) recordsobligations and work orders from EPA's WCF customers.PeoplePlus (PPL) is the A g ~ n c y ' s centralized system to support the human resources (HR) andtime and attendance business functions. It is the official repository for HR data on employees,positions, and organizations. The system is used by EPA's Office of Human Res01.Jrces forHR related activities and throughout EPA to manage the time and attendance 'process for all EPAemployees and managers.2. Explain how the business and accounting systems identified in response to Request No.1interact with one another.IFMS serves as the central nexus and all other systems interface with IFMS to input and/orextract data. BAS provides Available Funding, Account Structure, Transaction Code, Budget,Appropriatfon, Organization, and Program information to IFMS through an automated interface.SCORPIOS extracts data from the reporting utility for IFMS to prepare cost recovery summaries.The, Property Inventory System sends equipment information on the inventory results and assetclarification to IFMS on an annual basis. eBusiness retrieves information on funding from~ E B O S and pushes billing data to IFMS through a b a t c h . t r a n s a ~ t i o n . IRMS receives summarylevel budgetary, commitment, obligation, and payment data from IFMS on a nightly basis andtransmits commitment information to IFMS in real time. SPITS sends payment information toIFMS daily and retrieves obligation and commitment information from IFMS in real tin1e. TheBankcard Payment System provides commitment, obligation, and payment information, to IFMSon a daily basis. The Fellowship Payment System sends fellowship data to IFMS on anas-needed basis. IDOTS transmits obligation and payment redistribution transactions to IFMS


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Responses to Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - Financial S y s ~ e m s Cash Report to Treasury: Submitted monthly to Treasury by manually entering generalledger balances into the Government 'Wide Accounting Classification Transactions andAccountability (CTA) module (Formerly Partial 224).

. . Receivable and Debt Collection Activities: Submitted quarterly to Treasury by manuallyentering general ledger balances into the Debt Management Information System (DMIS).' Report on Budget Execution and Budgetary Resources (SF133), Year-End ClosingStatement (FMS 2108) and a portion of the Program and Financing (P&F) Schedule ofthe President's Budget: Submitted quarterly to Treasury by uploading a file with g ~ n e r a l ledger balances and required attributes into the Federal Agencies' Centralized Trial .Balance System (FACTS II). .' Confirmation of Fiduciary 'Activity: Submitted quarterly to Treasury by manuallyconfirming that EPA balances for fiduciary intragovemmental transactions agree withwhat Treasury has reported in the Intragovernmental Fid'uciary Confirmation System(IFCS). Discrepancies, if any, are explained. Agency Preclosing Trial Balance at Fund Group Level: Submitted annually to Treasuryby manually entering general ledger balances at the fund group level with requiredattributes into the Federal Agencies' Centralized Trial-Balance System(FACTS I). Agency's Closing Package: Submitted annually to Treasury by manually enteringaudited financial statement data into the Governmentwide Financial Report System,(GFRS) for inclusion in the Federal Report of the United States.

4. For each system identified in response to Request No.1, state whether inforJDation foundin that system is regularly or periodically submitted to tbe Office of Management and


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review in July, if budgetary projections suggest substantial changes from the baseline establishedin the D e c e m ~ e r submission, data on these changes are manually submitted to MAX.5. For each system identified in respon$e to Request No.1, describe recent, current, andplanned migration or modernization projects.In October 2011, EPA plans to go-live with a new core financial and accounting system toreplace its legacy mainframebased system, IFMS. This system is.1mown as COMPASS CoreFinancials and is based on a Commercial of f the Shelf (COTS) product from CGI Federal knownas Momentum. COMPASS Core Financials will be configured to integrate with all of thesystems identified in the response to the first question. This replacement of EPA's core financialsystem is the first stage in a component-based modernization strategy presented to the OMBFinancial Systems Advisory Board in 2010. Building on COMPASS core financial andaccounting system, this modernization strategy will include projects to modernize EPA's BAS,SCORPIOS, f ~ e d e r payment systems, and to adopt the Common Government .Wide AccquntCode Structure (CGAC) within COMPASS Core Financials. At present, these projects are in theinitial conceptual planning stage as EPA focuses on the successful deployment of COMPASSCore Financials. '6. In addition to Y9ur agency's submissions to government-wide accounting systemsmaintained by the Department of the Treasury and OMB, as described in response toRequests Nos. 3 and 4, does your agency publish any of the same information on-line forpublic viewing? If so, describe how and in what format that information is published.EPA does not publish any of our Treasury reports for on-line public viewing. However , most ofthe infonnation is contained, in EPA's annual financial statements. These statements are posted

. on EPA's public web site after the annual audit is complete.7. Identify and briefly describe each system that your agency uses to manage grants, directloans, and/or loan guarantees. If separate divisions, bureaus, or offices of your agency use


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Responses'to Committee on Oversight and Government Reform - Financial SystemsThe principal users of these systems are the Office of Grants and Debarment (OOD) and OeFO.IOMS, ASAP, and the Grants Data Mart are principally used by OOD. GPAS is used by bothOGD and OCFO.8. For each system identified in response to Request No.7, explain how it interacts with anybusiness or accounting system identified in respo'nse to Request No. 1.Grant funding obligations are committed within IFMS. IGMS retrieves commitment, obligation,document control, and account structure information on a nightly basis from IFMS to support itsgrant management workflow. EPA uses ASAP to process grant payments and ASAP providesGP AS with a file of payment transactions. GP AS serves to connect grant payments toobligations and submits this information to IFMS. The Grants Data Mart interacts with IGMSand GPAS to facilitate comparisons of g r a ~ t data against financial information.9. For each system identified in response to Request No.7, state whether information foundin that system is regularly or periodically submitted to the Catalogue of Federal DomesticAssistance (CFDA), and describe how and at what intervals those submissions occur,including d e s ~ r i p t i o n s of both automated and manual processes.'While the lGMS does contain Catalog ofFederal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) nu-mbers aridtitles, the system is not involved in the maintenance ofEPA's entries in the CFDA system. Eachyear EPA updates its CFDA program descriptions in accordance with General ServiceAdministration (GSA) guidance to ensure that the descriptions provide the public with accurateinformation on EPA funding opportunities. Updated GSA guidance is expected to requirereporting new CFDAs to OM B by July 15,2011; updates for existing CFDAs by August 16,2011; and final updates for all programs by September 16, 2011. OGD has a web-enableddatabase tool for receiving CFDA updates from EPA's program offices.10. For each system identified in response to Request No.7, state whether information


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--.- - - -Respenses to. Co.mmittee en Oversight and Government Referm - Financial Systems

11. For each system identified in r e s p o ~ s e to Request No.7, describe recent, current, andplanned migration or modernization projects. .CGD, along with program and regional suppert, conducted a preliminary alternatives analysiscomparing the three Grants Management Line of Business (OMLOB) providers selected byOMB. Based on the findings from this preliminary analysis, CGD selected Health and HumanServices (HHS) for further evaluation and completed a fit/gap analysi's on the GrantSelutionssystem in FY 2010. OOD also completed a fit/gap in FY 2010 with CompuSearch's PRISM, acommercially available product used by EPA's Office of Acquisition Management (OAM).OGD documented the rationale for pursuing Prism-Grants and submitted it to the OMLOBPregram Management Office at the National Science Feundation fer cemment. The OMLOBappeal'te further explore Prism-Grant was sent to OMB in August and appreved in Odeber 2010.IOMS and OPAS will interface with EPA's new cere financial and acceunting system,COMPASS Cere Financials, to. replicate the interaction that exists between these systems andIFMS.12. In addition to your agency's submissions to government-wide grants m a n a g e m ~ n t andreporting systems, described in response to Requests Nos. 9 and 10, does your agencypublish any of the same information on-line for public viewing? If so, describe how and inwhat f o r ~ a t that information is published.EP A maintains the Internet accessible Grants Awards Database that prevides infermation to. thepublic abeut EPA non-constructien grants awarded in the last 10 years. The URL fer thed ~ t a b a s e is http://yosemite.epa. gov/earm/igms egf.nsf/Hemepage?ReadFerm.13. Identify and briefly describe each system that your agency uses to manage contracts. Ifseparate divisions, bureaus, or offices of your agency use separate systems, identify whichdivisions, bureaus, or offices use each system.


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14. For each system 'identified in response to'Request No. 13, explain how it interacts withany business or accounting system identified in response to Request N(). 1.EAS sends commitment and obligation transactions associated with procurements to IFMS.EAS also uses IFMS to validate accounting strings and available balances for procurements.For contracts, EAS transmits contract invoices to CPS to initiate the contract payment processthrough the Department of the Treasury with this system. In tum, CPS passes obligation andpayment data back to IFMS to reflect payments within Agency accounts.15. For each system identified in response to Request No. 13, state whether information 'found in that system is regularly or periodically submitted to any of the government-widecontract management and reporting systems, e.g., FPDS, FPDS-NG, FAPIIS; etc., anddescribe how and at what intervals those submissions occur, including descriptions of bothautomated and manual processes.EAS reports data to FPDS-NG through an automated process. FPDSNG then transmits this datato USASpending.gov. EPA does not transact data directly with USASpending.gov. Data. "submitted to FPDSNG is organized around t ~ e Treasury Accounting Symbol (TAS). FPDSNGdoes not have the capability to capture or collect data from multiple lines of accounting (eachassociated with a unique T AS), thus EPA rolls up accounting lines and reports data under theTAS corresponding to the predominant funding amount. Data is finalized in FPDSNG basedupon an electronic approval in EAS. Once contracting data has been loaded into FPDS-NG,EPA does not know the transaction time for data to be transmitted from FPDSNG toUSASpending.gov.

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16"For each system identified in response to Request No. 13, describe recent, current , andplanned migration or modernization projects.EP A completed the migration of its legacy procurement and acquisitions systems, ICMS and


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Responses to Committee on Oversight and Governnlent Reform - Financial Systen:s18. Briefly describe your agency's efforts to comply withOMB's memorandum on theOpen Government Directive Federal. Spending Transparency, dated April 6, 2010. Inparticular, describe whether and how your agency has begun to collect and report s1Jb-award data, as required by the memorandum, and describe how your agency's reports onOMB's data quality metrics, as required by the memorandum, are generated.EPA initiated sub-award reporting on October 1,2010, consistent with the process outlined inOMB's August 27,2010 supplementary guidance, Open Goverru:nent Directive - FederalTransparency and Subaward and Compensation D(;lta Reporting, Appendix A. The guidancerequired EPA to (1) ensure the quality of its existing FAADS PLUS data submissions; (2) .convey to prime awardees, through revised standard terms and conditions, the requirement forsubaward and executive compensation reporting; and (3) communicate prime awardees therequirement to register in the Central Contractor Registratiol1 (CCR) system. Baseline metrics. on spending data quality have not yet been shared 'with EPA.EPA's overall approach and efforts to comply with the Open Government Directive and theFederal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act are detailed in our Open GovernmentData Quality Plan, released on May 18, 2010 and publically available athttp://www.epa.gov/openJopengov data quality plan.pdf. The Data Quality Plan describesEPA's internal process for ensuring the timeliness, cOlnpleteness, and accuracy of spending data.In order to communicate the new requirements to prime awardees, EPA developed standardterms and conditions, Implementing Guidance for prime awardees, and participated in publicworkshops.Per FAR Part 19 guidance, EPA contractors have been accessing and inputting s,:!bcontractingactivity information into electronic Subcontracting Reporting System (eSRS). Additionally,EPA Contracting Officers also have been provided access to eSRS to monitor and overseesubcontracting activities on EPA contracts.


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Responses to Committee on' Oversight and Government ~ e f o r n l - Financial SystemsEPA also reports on any and all contract actions through FPDS .NG, which transmits this data toUSASpending.gov (includes new c o n t r a c t s ~ modifications, delivery or task orders, blanketpurchase agreements, and simplified acquisitions/purchase orders). Data submissions toFPDS-NG are orchestrated in a real-time automated process 'based upon approvals in EAS).EP A reports on ~ o n t r a c t actions in c o m ~ l i a n c e with FFATA.EP A staff occasionally contacts USASpending.gov contractor staff with questions aboutsubmission issues. The USASpending.gov support group answered all questions and providedguidance that was accurate and helpful. .20. Describe the data quality controls and procedures that your agency has implementedfor information that is submitted to USASpending.gov, including information submitteddirectly and information submitted to one of the systems that feeds USASpending.gov.For each data set submitted directly or indirectly to USASpending.gov, EPA instituted a qualityassurance process to assess and ensure the accuracy and reliability of spending data. Each dataset is reviewed to assess the risk level associated with the data accuracy and reliability. This risklevel is used to determine the scope of a random sample of data used by the reviewer to provide as t a t i s t ~ c a l l y significant assurance of its accuracy. The reviewer will cross check the accuracy ofthis sample against supporting documentation and will verify the accuracy of an additionalsample of transactions by dollar value. Tests of internal controls are conducted to verify theirreliability. The data flow for data set generation is reviewed to verify the procedures andpolicies were followed. Spot checks are performed to ensure that data is properly labeled in aclear and accurate manner. If applicable, all data must have a clean audit opinion and if there areany outstanding audit issues with the data, the data will not be posted. Each office requesting aposting of a spending data set must be able to c.ertify and trace the origin of the data. OARM AAcertifies the accuracy of current data sets on USASpending.gov on a quarterly basis to the CFO.A copy of the EPA data quality plan is available at:


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21. State whether all of your agency's current grants, contracts, and loans are accuratelyreflected on USASpending.gov, and, if not, estimate the percentage of current grants,contracts, and loans that are .not accurately reflected, using both the number oftransactions and dollar figures.Currently, all EPA grants are accurately reflected on USASpending.gov with the exception of sixawards during the last three months as a result of the active CCR registration requireP1ent. Thesesix awards represent less than one percent of EPA grants. The six recipients are currently in theprocess of completing registration in the CCR. EP A believes the contract data reflected onUSASpending.gov is accurate.22. State whether your agency incurs any reporting burdens or c o s ~ s as a result of itsobligations under the Federal Financial Assistance Transparency Act C'FFATAff) that itdoes not incur as a result of other reporting obligations, a n ~ estimate those burdens andcosts in worker-hours and dollars.EPA personnel have additional data entry requirements to look up the T AS associated with the"line(s) of accounting, determine the predominant TAS, and enter that data into FPDS. We haveno method of accurately measuring the atnount of time spent on this activity.23. Identify the individual(s) who serve(s) as Senior Accountable Official(s) (,'SAOH ) overfederal spending data quality for your a g e n c ~ , as defined by 01\1B.EPA's Chief Financial Officer, Barbara J. Bennett, serves the Agency's Open GovernmentSAO to ensure spending data integrity. EPA's Chief Information Officer (CIO), MalcolmJackson, is accountable for general data quality. EPA established an Open GovernmentSpending Information Quality Work Group consisting of representatives from OARM, Office ofEnvironmental Information (OEI), and the OeFO. Both the SAO and CIa work in parallel toensure the quality of all high-value Agency data.


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United StatesEnvironmental Protection AgencyWashington, DC 20460Official BusinessPenalty for PrivateUse$300 1:3(} /1 }

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The Honorable Darrell IssaChairmanCommittee on Oversight and Government ReformHouse of RepresentativesWashington l D.C. 20515

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