Halliburton to monitor the environment?

EPA TO CONTRACT OUT WATCHDOG FUNCTIONS

EPA Inspector General Shifting Focus to Emphasize Bush Management Agenda

Washington, DC — The Office of Inspector General for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to hire contractors to perform many of its audits while shifting resources away from public health issues, such as air and water pollution, according to an internal e-mail released today by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). In the coming year the EPA Inspector General (IG) wants to concentrate on pursuing Bush administration policies on risk assessment and program evaluation.

The June 4, 2007 e-mail from Acting EPA Inspector General Bill Roderick to his top staff proposes that for the 2008 Fiscal Year, beginning this October, the IG reorganize its staff and priorities to –

• Contract out financial audits and reviews of information security. The Roderick e-mail queries “What other financial statement audits can we see about contracting out?”
• At the same time it is increasing its own reliance on contractors, it would reduce audits of EPA contracts to devote more resources to an evaluation program pushed by the President’s Office of Management & Budget: “I think we could take a break from contracts to hit the PART [Program Assessment Rating Tool] for ‘08”; and
• Drop much work in air and water pollution claiming “we have saturated” these areas and begin unspecified work on research and enforcement programs, after “developing topics” for review.

(The rest is here. Thanks to Minnesota Central for the tip.)