EPA’s in-house watchdog has flagged concerns about the Office of Research and Development’s oversight of scientific studies after a researcher collaborated with relatives and listed their minor child as co-author on a paper.
The report lands at a sensitive time, arriving just weeks after a Trump administration proposal to fire or reassign a majority of the Office of Research and Development’s roughly 1,500 employees was disclosed by Democrats on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.
“Ultimately, a lack of adequate internal controls throughout the ORD clearance process enabled a manuscript that had issues of integrity and impartiality and that may be scientifically unsound to be published,” EPA’s inspector general wrote in a “management implication” report publicly released Thursday morning, albeit with some redactions.
The report warns that the agency “could suffer embarrassment and a loss of public trust in its research.”
