Pipeline Safety: Management of the Office of Pipeline Safety's Enforcement Program Needs Further Strengthening

In response to this recommendation, OPS developed a detailed plan for its enforcement program that establishes a set of goals for the program. This plan was finalized in August 2005. Specifically, the plan sets goals that identify the desired intermediate outcomes (direct results) and end outcomes (ultimate results) of the enforcement program on pipeline safety. For example, the program seeks to bring about improvements in various aspects of the safety performance of pipeline operators as evidenced by reductions in the severity of inspection findings and enforcement actions over time. OPS expects that progress in achieving these intermediate outcome goals will lead to progress in achieving end outcome goals, including reductions in the total number of accidents caused by non-compliance with pipeline safety regulations.

In response to this recommendation, OPS developed a plan for its enforcement program that constitutes an overall strategy for enforcement. The plan establishes an overall mission for the program as well as a related set of goals and regulatory strategies. This plan was finalized in August 2005. The plan establishes 9 goals that identify the desired impacts of the program on pipeline safety and 14 regulatory strategies that it intends to employ to achieve these goals. For example, to help ensure that pipeline operators strive to avoid non-compliances, the program intends to severely deal with significant non-compliances and repeat offenses. In addition, the plan identifies a number of actions and initiatives to achieve each strategy. These include posting operator and industry compliance performance on the office's web site and developing more detailed guidance for making inspection findings, ranking the severity of accidents, and proposing enforcement actions and civil penalties.

In the report, GAO cited the following as key practices for achieving successful performance measurement systems: (1) measures that are linked to program goals and that demonstrate the degree to which desired program results are achieved, (2) measures that address important aspects of program performance, and (3) measures that provide useful information for decision making. In response to this recommendation, OPS developed a plan for its enforcement program that establishes a set of measures for the program that meet these criteria. This plan was finalized in August 2005. For example, the plan establishes six measures of the extent to which the program achieves intermediate outcome goals (direct results) and three measures of the extent to which it achieves end outcome goals (ultimate results). These measures--along with additional new measures in the plan of the extent to which the program has completed various initiatives aimed at improving the management of enforcement efforts--address various aspects of performance and are designed to assist managers in making policy decisions about the program.

In response to this recommendation, the Pipeline Safety Office of Enforcement and Program Performance (formerly known as OPS) established standard operating procedures for informing FAA regarding proposed and assessed civil penalties in August 2004. These procedures require that pipeline safety staff notify FAA of proposed civil penalties and chief counsel staff notify FAA of assessed civil penalties.

In July 2005, FAA began sending civil penalty collection reports to the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration's (formerly RSPA) office of chief counsel's staff, who then shares the reports with the Pipeline Safety Office of Enforcement and Program Performance (PHP, formerly known as OPS) staff. At that time, FAA sent two civil penalty reports to the chief counsel's staff, specifically a comprehensive report summarizing the status of all open pipeline civil penalty accounts and a report summarizing payments operators have made on civil penalties. Once PHP personnel receive the reports, they are able to update their enforcement tracking system and identify whether any civil penalties are overdue.

According to the Office of Pipeline Safety on 6/23/05, the agency is currently posting all of its enforcement actions (i.e., Notice Letters and Final Orders, including Corrective Action Orders), on the OPS web site--consistent with its policy.