Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO commented on whether the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were using contractor personnel to perform inherently governmental functions. GAO noted that: (1) Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidelines on contracting for government commercial activities prohibited agencies from contracting for inherently governmental functions; (2) DOE contracted for hearing examiners and personnel security examiners, contending that the examiners made recommendations in an advisory capacity; (3) GAO and OMB believed that the examiners should be government personnel, since they considered evidence and made specific rulings on factual questions; (4) DOE contracted for assistance in preparing congressional testimony, which appeared to violate its own regulations and constituted an inherently governmental function; and (5) EPA contracted for the operation of a telephone hotline to answer questions from the public regarding environmental laws.

Status Legend:

Review Pending-GAO has not yet assessed implementation status.

Open-Actions to satisfy the intent of the recommendation have not been taken or are being planned, or actions that partially satisfy the intent of the recommendation have been taken.

Closed-implemented-Actions that satisfy the intent of the recommendation have been taken.

Closed-not implemented-While the intent of the recommendation has not been satisfied, time or circumstances have rendered the recommendation invalid.

• Review Pending
• Open
• Closed - implemented
• Closed - not implemented

Recommendations for Executive Action

Recommendation: EPA should review the contract and, if necessary, modify it to ensure that the contractor does not provide original interpretations of EPA regulations.

Agency Affected: Environmental Protection Agency

Status: Closed - Implemented

Comments: EPA did review the contract and added language requiring legal or highly technical questions be referred to appropriate EPA staff.

Recommendation: EPA should require the contractor to identify to all callers that the hotline is staffed by contractor personnel and that interpretations of EPA regulations must be handled by EPA personnel.

Agency Affected: Environmental Protection Agency

Status: Closed - Implemented

Comments: Effective February 1990, EPA stated it had implemented the procedure of requiring contractor personnel to identify themselves as such to all callers.