The Environmental Protection Agency is under review after it is believed that they have been deleting texts that should have been kept and documented.
The EPA’s general inspection office has declared that the agency will undergo an audit, and will examine the agencies policy for keeping text messages.
The audit was sparked when the Republicans on the House science committee started to complain that thousands of texts were deleted that should not have been.
Jennifer Kaplan, spokeswoman for the EPA inspector general’s office, told Fox News, “Our auditors were persuaded that this is something that they needed to look into,” confirming that the audit was brought on by a complaint.
The IG Notice that was released by officials stated, “Our objective is to determine whether the EPA adhered to applicable laws, regulations, and agency policies and procedures for records management, and preserved text messages when conducting official business.”
Many are believing that the EPA is attempting to hide something by deleting thousands of their messages, while they state that they deleted the messages because they contained nothing of importance.
“EPA is not aware of any individual non-compliance,” states the agency, which leads us to believe that their text messages are not really monitored at all because the EPA believes texts can be deleted when are no longer needed.
An audit is essentially a screening to see if an organization is maintaining the proper paperwork and documentation. If the audit discovers wrongdoing then the EPA could be put under investigation for trying to cover up their actions. The agency believes that none of the messages deleted were unlawfully dismissed.
This is not the first time the EPA has had to be reprimanded for their lack of documentation. Last year the agency was ridiculed for having missing emails from and official caught up in controversy over a gold and copper mine in Alaska. Former administrator, Lisa Jackson, also was caught using fake email alias.
Text messages are usually un-retrievable, and the audit will essentially see how many texts are accounted for and what type of system the agency has for monitoring their employees texts. It could be that the organization has nothing to hide, but if they know they need to keep them because of the law, then even if they have no pressing information they should be kept, otherwise investigations and audits will result.
Photo: EPA
