EPA Still Hiding the Pickle

IG: EPA Still Blocking Access to Investigations

The Environmental Protection Agency is still blocking its inspector general from investigating wrongdoing at the agency, according to the government watchdog’s semi-annual report to Congress.

More than a year after coming under scrutiny for stonewalling an investigation into a senior official accused of sexually harassing over a dozen women, the EPA is still not being cooperative with the inspector general.

“In the previous Semiannual Report to Congress, we reported theoretical progress with regard to the longstanding denial of access for the [Office of Inspector General] OIG by the EPA’s Office of Homeland Security (OHS) to information sought by the OIG,” the report said. “After considerable delay, OHS provided some documents to the OIG but continued to deny access to others.”

The dispute stems from an investigation into a senior official who was accused of harassing 16 women over a decade. The inspector general had found that other senior EPA officials “likely knew about the sexual harassment, but did nothing for six months.”

The official retired without punishment the same day he was set to be interviewed by the inspector general.

The EPA had blamed an agreement with the FBI for not being forthcoming regarding the investigation. However, FBI officials said that they did not restrict the EPA from sharing information with the inspector general.

EPA is one of the Vietnamese villages of the Federal bureaucracy. They must be destroyed to be saved.