Workplace Safety and Health: OSHA's Oversight of Its Civil Penalty Determination and Violation Abatement Processes Has Limitations

United States. Government Accountability Office.

United States. Government Accountability Office.

关键词: Government accountability -- United States.;    employment;    health care;    workplace safety and health;    letter report;   

RP-ID  :  GAO-04-920
RP-ID  :  243725

美国|英语

来源: UNT Digital Library

【 摘 要 】

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the findings of our study of the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA) determination of civil penalties and abatement of violations. The objective of the study was to assess the extent of OSHA's oversight of the civil penalty determination and the violation abatement processes. In addition, we developed a statistical model, known as a multivariate analysis, to better understand factors that influenced variation in penalty amounts. On July 7, 2004, we briefed Labor officials on the results of our study. This letter report formally conveys the information we presented at that briefing. To assess the extent of OSHA's oversight of the civil penalty determination and violation abatement processes, we (1) reviewed 2002 and 2003 regional audits from the five regions with the most inspections, (2) visited one of these regional offices and one area office within this region to interview officials and review documents and procedures, (3) conducted telephone interviews with the four remaining regional offices and one area office within each of those regions, (4) interviewed OSHA officials to identify relevant policies and procedures, and (5) reviewed relevant policies and procedures. In addition, we explored another possible oversight technique--a quantitative multivariate analysis to better understand factors that influence variation in penalty amounts."