EPA also maintains 10 regional offices to implement federal environmental statutes and to provide oversight of related state activities. EPA's staff or full time equivalents (FTEs) grew by about 18 percent from fiscal year 1990 through fiscal year 1999 (see fig. EPA's Human Capital Strategy Is a Promising First Step but Lacks Key Elements

EPA's human capital strategy is a promising initial effort to develop a framework for managing the agency's workforce. EPA and federal agencies in general have not given adequate attention to human capital management in the past. OECA's Workforce Deployment Does Not Ensure the Consistent Enforcement of Environmental Requirements Across Regions

Managing EPA's enforcement workforce is particularly challenging because enforcement activities pervade the agency's programs and regions. OECA provides overall direction on enforcement policies to the regions, which carry out enforcement actions and oversee the enforcement activities of states that EPA has authorized to enforce federal environmental regulations. Furthermore, as EPA implements its human capital strategy over the next few years, we recommend that the Administrator better align the strategy with those of high-performing organizations by working toward   developing a system for workforce allocation and deployment that is explicitly linked to the agency's strategic and program planning efforts and that is based on systematic efforts of each major program office to accurately identify the size of its workforce, the deployment of staff geographically and organizationally, and the skills needed to support its strategic goals;   designing succession plans to maintain a sustained commitment and continuity of leadership within the agency based on (1) a review of current and emerging leadership needs and (2) identified sources of executive talent within and outside the agency; targeting recruitment and hiring practices to fill the agency's short- and long-term human capital needs and, specifically, to fill gaps identified through EPA's workforce planning system; and implementing training practices that include (1) education, training, and other developmental opportunities to help the agency's employees build the competencies that are needed to achieve EPA's shared vision, and (2) an explicit link between the training curricula and the competencies needed for mission accomplishment. Appendix I: Scope and Methodology

Our objectives for this review were to determine (1) the extent that EPA's strategy to improve its human capital management includes the key elements associated with successful human capital strategies, (2) the major human capital challenges facing EPA in successfully implementing its strategy, and (3) the extent to which EPA's deployment of its enforcement workforce ensures that federal environmental requirements are consistently enforced across regions. EPA may also take appropriate enforcement action against violators. EPA administers its environmental enforcement responsibilities through its headquarters Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA).
Why GAO Did This Study

During the last decade, as most federal agencies downsized, the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) workforce grew by about 18 percent. Much of this growth occurred in EPA's 10 regional offices, which carry out most of the agency's efforts to encourage industry compliance with environmental regulations. Currently, EPA's workforce of 17,000 individuals includes scientists, engineers, lawyers, environmental protection specialists, and mission-support staff. Some Members of Congress have questioned whether EPA is giving enough attention to managing this large and diverse workforce. The workforce management practices of EPA's Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA)--which takes direct action against violators of environmental statutes and oversees the environmental enforcement activities of states--have come under particular scrutiny because its enforcement activities span all of EPA's programs and regions. Although EPA has began several initiatives during the last decade to better organize and manage its workforce, it has not received the resources and senior-level management attention needed to realize them. This report reviews (1) the extent to which EPA's strategy includes the key elements associated with successful human capital strategies, (2) the major human capital challenges EPA faces in the successful implementation of its strategy, and (3) how OECA deploys the enforcement workforce among EPA's 10 regions to ensure that federal environmental requirements are consistently enforced across regions either by OECA or by states with enforcement programs that OECA oversees.

What GAO Found

GAO found that EPA's November 2000 human capital strategy is a promising first step towards improving the agency's management of its workforce, but it lacks some of the key elements that are commonly found in the human capital strategies of high-performing organizations. EPA's major challenges in human capital management involve assessing the work requirements for its employees, ensuring continuity of leadership within the agency, and hiring and developing skilled staff. OECA does not systematically deploy its workforce to ensure the consistent enforcement of federal regulations throughout all EPA regions and bases deployment decisions on outdated and incomplete information on key regional workload factors.