(a) The ICR system, including all records, shall be subject to review and audit by the U.S. EPA or its authorized representative. These powers may be delegated to appropriate State water pollution control agencies such as the Ohio EPA.
(b) It will be the practice of the U.S. EPA to make a preliminary audit of the ICR system at the time of, and as an extension to, the final construction audit. The scope of the preliminary audit will generally include the following:
(1) Verification that the approved ICR system fully complies with the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, U.S. EPA regulations concerning ICR and subsequent related guidelines; and
(2) Determination of the existence of an adequate accounting system and other administrative procedures and systems, including, waste monitoring systems where these are required to effectively implement the approved ICR system.
The purpose of the ICR system preliminary audit is to identify deficiencies so that corrections can be made. When the final construction audit occurs after several months of operation of the treatment works, or after the first full year of the ICR system operation, the preliminary audit of the ICR system will take the form of a regular audit.
(c) The U.S. EPA will schedule regular audits of the ICR system when determined to be necessary and requested by the U.S. EPA Regional Administrator. Unrequested, random audits will also be made to assess general performance of the ICR system management and to identify potential problem areas. Regular and random audits will normally include the following:
(1) Determination of whether allocable industrial costs have been properly computed, assessed and collected in accordance with the approved ICR system and approved revisions thereto;
(2) Determination of whether collected amounts have been properly accounted for and have been deposited in accounts or invested in obligations as noted in Section 921.17, and a determination of whether the interest earned on collected amounts has been fully and properly accrued;
(3) Determination of whether the Municipality, or its authorized representative, has made all annual submissions and payments to the U.S. EPA and whether these have been complete and correct;
(4) Determination of the effectiveness of actions being taken by the Municipality, or its authorized representative, to collect delinquent ICR accounts;
(5) Determination of the adequacy of wastewater monitoring and reporting by the Municipality and/or the industrial users, to the extent that such monitoring is required by the approved ICR system and approved amendments thereto; and
(6) Determination of whether any and all uses of retained funds have been approved by the U.S. EPA Regional Administrator (or State agency when it has been granted such authority), and have been actually applied to eligible project costs.
(d) Audits may also be made when there is suspicion of non-compliance with the approved ICR system and Federal laws, U.S. EPA regulations and guidelines relating thereto. Examples of noncompliance are: inequitable proration of the ICR charges among industrial users, failure to charge all ICR amounts, failure to account for and invest collected and retained amounts, failure to pay the share due the Federal Government, and use of the Municipality's eighty percent (80%) portion of retained amounts without prior approval of the U.S. EPA Regional Administrator. (Ord. 18-1980. Passed 10-13-80.)