All News Releases By Date

PA CHANGES RESULT IN BETTER HANDLING OF TSCA BUSINESS INFO.

Release Date: 01/10/97
Contact Information:

PA CHANGES RESULT IN BETTER HANDLING OF TSCA BUSINESS INFO.

FOR RELEASE: FRIDAY, JANUARY 10, 1997

CHANGES TO MANAGEMENT INFORMATION SYSTEM RESULT IN BETTER HANDLING OF TSCA
CONFIDENTIAL BUSINESS INFORMATION

New audit results show significant improvements resulting from a series of reforms taken by EPA's Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) to adjust its control and handling of documents claimed as Confidential Business Information (CBI) under the Toxic Substances Control Act. Specifically, between April and June 1996, the new audit data show that only two CBI documents could not be accounted for, compared to 106 documents that could not be accounted for between the months of October 1995 and March 1996, prior to the time that the reforms were made by OPPTS. OPPTS handles hundreds of thousands of CBI documents yearly. The reforms were made starting in April 1996, following a preliminary audit of the documents collected in the CBI Center between October 1993 and October 1995. During that time, approximately 200 documents could not be accounted for, although no documents are known to have actually been released from the Agency's secured storage area. Based on the results of this first audit, OPPTS took action to correct the identified problems, including intensive staff training, improvements to the computer system and an increase in the resources dedicated to CBI accountability and oversight, resulting in a reduction of the number of unaccounted-for documents to two. As a result of its most recent audit, EPA today has notified 65 companies that it is currently unable to account for 106 documents filed with the Agency between October 1995 and March 1996, and two additional documents filed after April. Companies also were notified that there is no evidence that any unauthorized disclosure of data has occurred. Results of the audit for the remainder of calendar year 1996, July through December, will be complete in March 1997.

R-3                                     #    #    #