The ABA’s recommended standards define these characteristics as follows:   Independence—An ombudsman must be and appear to be free from interference in the legitimate performance of duties and independent from control, limitation, or penalty by an officer of the appointing entity or a person who may be the subject of a complaint or inquiry. Key Aspects of EPA’s National Hazardous Waste Ombudsman Are Not Consistent With Relevant Professional Standards

Important characteristics of EPA’s national hazardous waste ombudsman differ from the professional standards of practice adopted by various ombudsman associations. In terms of organizational structure, the national ombudsman is located within OSWER, the organizational unit whose decisions the ombudsman is responsible for investigating. The officials also said that at the time the structure was established, the ombudsman’s workload consisted primarily of responding to informational inquiries rather than conducting investigations. OSWER officials pointed out that the ombudsmen in other federal agencies generally have an agency-wide jurisdiction, while EPA’s ombudsman is responsible only for inquiries and investigations relating to the hazardous waste programs managed by OSWER. Most of the regional ombudsmen devote less than 25 percent of their time to the ombudsman role. If the regional ombudsmen are to be truly independent, EPA’s national ombudsman believes that they should report to him and should not have other responsibilities that pose a potential conflict. In the case of the national hazardous waste ombudsman, EPA could help ensure that the ombudsman is perceived as independent by locating the function outside the unit he is responsible for investigating and by giving him control over his budget and staff resources. To obtain information on the relative roles and responsibilities of EPA’s national and regional ombudsmen, we developed a data collection instrument to question the regional ombudsmen on their functions in each of EPA’s 10 regions for calendar years 1999 and 2000. We discussed the operations of the regional ombudsmen with OSWER officials and with the national ombudsman and compared those operations with those of the national ombudsman and the relevant professional standards for independence.
Why GAO Did This Study

Through the impartial and independent investigation of citizens' complaints, federal ombudsmen provide the public with an informal and accessible avenue of redress. Ombudsmen help federal agencies be more responsive to persons who believe that their concerns have not been dealt with fully or fairly through normal problem-solving channels. A national hazardous waste ombudsman was established at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1984. In recent years, that ombudsman has increasingly investigated citizen complaints referred by Members of Congress. As the number and significance of the ombudsman's investigations have increased, so have questions about the adequacy of available resources and whether other impediments exist to fulfilling the ombudsman's responsibilities. This report (1) compares the national ombudsman's operations with professional standards for independence and other factors and (2) determines the relative roles and responsibilities of EPA's national and regional ombudsmen.

What GAO Found

GAO found that key aspects of EPA's national hazardous waste ombudsman differ from professional standards for ombudsmen who deal with inquiries from the public. For example, an effective ombudsman must have independence from any person who may be the subject of a complaint or inquiry. However, EPA's national ombudsman is in the Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response (OSWER), the organizational unit whose decisions the ombudsman is responsible for investigating, and his budget and staff resources are controlled by unit managers within OSWER. GAO also found that, compared with EPA's national hazardous waste ombudsman, the regional ombudsmen are less independent and play a reduced role, primarily responding to informational inquiries on a part-time basis. Most of the ombudsmen in EPA's 10 regional offices hold positions within the regional organization that appear to compromise their independence. The regional ombudsmen split their time between performing duties related to the ombudsman function and duties related to the implementation of the hazardous waste programs that they are responsible for investigating. Communication between the national and regional ombudsmen is limited, despite operating guidelines that call for close communication. The national ombudsman periodically refers informational inquiries to the regional ombudsmen but rarely requests their assistance in investigations.