The EPA Office of Inspector General
Summary
EPA's internal watchdog, funded at $43.25 million and 227.5 people in FY2026, identified $28 in potential monetary impact for every $1 Congress gave it in FY2025 -- the Good Citizen series' entry on the office that audits, evaluates, and investigates the agency that regulates the nation's air, water, and land.
What is this organization?
What does it do?
In the six months from April through September 2025, the issued 23 audit, evaluation, and inspection reports⧉ -- 11 performance audits, 6 evaluations, 1 financial audit, and 5 other projects -- identifying $8.0 million in questioned costs and $224.0 million in funds that could be put to better use, including $218.2 million in unawarded tribal water-infrastructure grants⧉. Investigators closed 49 cases and opened 75 more⧉, leaving 171 open at period's end; that work produced 10 criminal indictments, 4 convictions, and $7.1 million combined in criminal and civil recoveries.
What does it cost to run — money and people?
Congress funded the core Office of Inspector General appropriation at $43.25 million for FY2026⧉ -- flat against FY2025 -- supporting 227.5 full-time positions⧉, up from 178.8 the year before as the office staffed up for and Inflation Reduction Act oversight. A further $11.3 million and 42.5 positions come through a Superfund-account transfer⧉, bringing the office's full footprint to $54.6 million and 270 FTEs. Measured against the Census Bureau's 341.8 million U.S. residents⧉, the core appropriation costs about $0.13 per person a year.
View data as table
| Funds recommended for better use | 224 | 11 performance audits, incl. $218.2M in unawarded IIJA tribal water grants |
|---|---|---|
| Questioned costs identified | 8 | 6 evaluations, incl. the Underground Injection Control Class VI review |
| Civil recoveries | 4 | from closed investigations this period |
| Criminal fines & recoveries | 3.1 | from closed investigations this period |
Why is it good for society?
The 's own accounting puts its FY2025 return at $28 in potential monetary impact for every $1 Congress gave it⧉ -- audits that redirect misallocated grant money, evaluations that force fixes to flawed formulas, and investigations that produce fines, restitution, and debarments no program office would pursue against itself. The counterfactual is on the record: a performance audit found EPA had left $218 million in tribal water-infrastructure grants unawarded⧉ under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act before the 's review pushed the agency to revise its allocation process.
- The 's FY2025 self-reported return -- $28 in potential monetary impact per $1 Congress gave it -- rests on recoveries you can trace: this reporting period alone, its audits and investigations identified about $239 million in questioned costs, redirectable funds, and recoveries.
- FTEs grew from 178.8 in FY2024 to 227.5 by FY2026 as the office built capacity to oversee 's roughly $60 billion in Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act funding and roughly $41 billion in Inflation Reduction Act funding.
Your handles.* Aware of fraud, waste, or abuse in an or CSB program? File it with the EPA OIG Hotline complaint form — or call (888) 546-8740, or email .Hotline@epa.gov — and the office can open a case straight from a tip, no referral required. To see what the has already found, read its Semiannual Reports to Congress, issued every spring and fall.
Sources(3) ▾
- U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, FY 2026 Annual Performance Plan and Congressional Justification, Tab 04: Inspector General (EPA-190R25002) (2025-06-01) — 's own FY2026 congressional budget justification tab for the Office of Inspector General -- the source for this entry's FY2024-FY2026 budget authority and workyear () figures, the Inspector General Act citation, the 's mission/identity language, and FY2024 investigative and Hotline workload counts. epa.gov · original document
- U.S. EPA Office of Inspector General, Semiannual Report to Congress: April 1, 2025-September 30, 2025 (OIG Report No. 26-N-0002, EPA Publication No. 350-R-25-002) (2025-11-01) — The 's own statutorily mandated semiannual report to Congress under the Inspector General Act, covering April-September 2025 plus FY2025 highlights -- the source for this entry's reporting-period workload figures (reports issued, questioned costs, funds put to better use, investigative caseload, criminal/civil results), the FY2025 return-on-investment figure, and the office's statutory identity language. epa.gov · original document
- U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Population Growth Slows Due to Historic Decline in Net International Migration (Vintage 2025 national population estimate) (2026-01-27) — The Census Bureau's own Vintage 2025 national population estimate release, giving the U.S. resident population as of July 1, 2025 -- the per-resident denominator for this entry's cost-per-person KPI, per better_metrics.md's sourced-denominator discipline. Same document and sealed capture used in good-citizen-gao (indexed and independently corroborated in that entry's blind verification). census.gov · original document
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The Office of Inspector General was created under the Inspector General Act of 1978⧉, 5 U.S.C. §§ 401-424, as an independent office inside the agency with its own line-item appropriation. Since 2004⧉, Congress has also named the inspector general to serve as inspector general for the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). The Act requires the office to keep , the CSB, and Congress "fully and currently informed"⧉ about program problems and the progress of fixing them.