Audit Approves MSHA's Implementation of UBB Recommendations
The Labor Department's inspector general found the agency had implemented 56 of them by Feb. 11, 2013, and is on track for the remaining 44 items.
MSHA is on track to implement all of the recommendations of an internal review report that examined its inspectors' performance in the wake of the Upper Big Branch Mine coal dust explosion on April 5, 2010, in West Virginia, the U.S. Labor Department's Office of Inspector General found in a newly posted audie. The explosion killed 29 miners, and on April 29, 2010, MSHA Assistant Secretary Joe Main launched the review of his agency's actions at the mine. It was the deadliest U.S. coal mine disaster in 40 years.
The review team's report contained 100 recommendations. U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who chairs the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, asked the OIG to audit MSHA's progress in implementing the recommendations.
The full report indicates MSHA had implemented 38 recommendations by September 2012 and had implemented 56 recommendations by Feb. 11, 2013. "MSHA seems to be on track to meet its milestones for implementation of the remaining 44 recommendations that have due dates," the OIG reported.
To read the report, visit this website.