Pesticides

Information Systems Improvements Essential for EPA's Reregistration Efforts Gao ID: IMTEC-93-5 November 23, 1992

After more than 3 years of effort and $14 million spent on computer systems, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) still cannot easily assemble accurate, reliable, and complete information on pesticides being reregistered. This has complicated the already difficult task the agency faces in meeting pesticide reregistration deadlines mandated by Congress. EPA's information management problems arise from poor systems planning and poor data management. Confronting an overload of reregistration information and short deadlines, EPA adopted a fast track strategy for developing its new reregistration systems--without first adequately setting program management requirements or defining systems requirements. Furthermore, the consistency, accuracy, and completeness of the information within the new systems is also jeopardized because EPA has not implemented procedures to ensure data consistency and quality. The upshot is that the new systems fall short in meeting users' needs; compiling information about pesticides undergoing reregistrations remains a difficult, labor-intensive, and time-consuming job.

GAO found that: (1) EPA has spent more than $14 million for pesticide reregistration information system improvements; (2) EPA management problems include inadequate systems planning and poor data management; (3) due to an overload of reregistration information and time constraints, EPA adopted a rapid strategy for developing its new reregistration systems; (4) EPA developed new systems before it established program management and systems data requirements; (5) the lack of data management procedures jeopardized the consistency, accuracy, and completeness of information in the system; (6) the lack of data definition standards made information integration and sharing difficult; (7) the new systems did not meet users' needs for automated pesticide information monitoring functions; and (8) compiling information about pesticides undergoing reregistration remained difficult, labor intensive, and time-consuming.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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