EPA the Environmental Protection Agency Term Paper

Also, the Inspector General's Act Amendments of 1998 require that the EPA provide a report to Congress "twice a year and that the OIG reports to Congress annually on the status of audits and... corrective actions" ("U.S. Environmental," 2006, Internet).

Of course, like all governmental agencies, the EPA has been mandated to be accountable for using its "resources wisely" in order to achieve programs results. This is due to the 1993 enactment of the Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) which requires all government agencies to "develop plans for what they intend to accomplish," how well they perform at attempting to achieve the desired results, "make appropriate decisions based on information" gathered from research and exploratory committees and provide their findings to Congress and the general American public via brochures, newsletters and the Internet. The GPRA also requires the EPA to develop five-year-long strategic plans for long-term goals and objectives related to planning and their budget which is provided by U.S. government and American taxpayers ("U.S. Environmental," 2006, Internet).

According to Lyons Gray, the Chief Financial Officer of the EPA, the agency is busy at work constructing "a business infrastructure based on modern technology," part of which will help to develop "a comprehensive financial management system that will streamline financial workflow, transform administrative services and further integrate programmatic, performance and financial information." Also, the EPA is in the process of developing "an administrative data warehouse to reduce the need for redundant management and data sources among the various EPA offices" in order to guarantee the most efficient and cost-effective information exchange ("U.S. Environmental," 2006, Internet).

References

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (2006). Internet. Retrieved at http://www.epa.gov/aboutepa.htm......