Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) employees carried out oversight of agency contracts issued during disasters when they were not qualified to do so, according to a recent report from congressional watchdog the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO).
Every year, FEMA grants billions of dollars to contracts for responding to natural disasters, such as to provide temporary housing to affected individuals and other aid.
This was observed in eight of the 15 contracts the GAO reviewed. “For example, some FEMA housing specialists conducted activities like filling out contractor assessment forms without having received certification or authorization for performing such tasks.”
Without ensuring that the staff are properly certified and have the necessary authority, there is an “increased risk” of FEMA using unqualified staff for oversight activities. Such staff members may fail to properly assess whether the goods and services received are in line with the contracts, it said.
At FEMA, the contracting officer’s representative (COR) is tasked with assisting in monitoring and administering a contract. They are required to be certified and must finish a variety of classes to achieve the certification, including those related to conducting oversight of contracts.
In one instance, FEMA used manufactured housing specialists to conduct site inspections for an $89 million temporary housing contract program linked to the Kentucky floods. Only 25 out of the 35 specialists were found to be COR-certified.
In addition to staff issues, the GAO identified other problems with FEMA oversight.
“FEMA did not always document oversight activities or details of contractor performance, such as whether a contractor performed work within the time frame specified in the contract,” the report said.
“Without this documentation, FEMA and others may not know whether FEMA received the level and quality of services or goods that it purchased.”
GAO made seven recommendations, including that FEMA take steps to ensure that staff members performing oversight duties have “proper certification and authorization.” It asked the agency to reiterate to its staff the importance of documenting the performance of contractors.
A draft version of the report was submitted to the DHS for review and comment. FEMA is part of the DHS.
In its response, the DHS concurred with all seven recommendations. It stated that it is committed to ensuring that CORs conducting contract oversight duties have the necessary authorization and certification.
In case CORs are found not to have the correct certification level, officials will “take corrective action as appropriate to replace the COR with one who has the proper certification level,” said the DHS.
FEMA Review
President Donald Trump has previously raised concerns about FEMA. On Jan. 24, Trump visited places in North Carolina that were affected by Hurricane Helene last year.“I think, frankly, FEMA is not good. I think when you have a problem like this ... you want to use your state to fix it, and not waste time calling FEMA.”
In addition, there are “serious concerns of political bias in FEMA,” the order stated.
“Indeed, at least one former FEMA responder has stated that FEMA managers directed her to avoid homes of individuals supporting the campaign of Donald J. Trump for President,” the order stated.
“And it has lost mission focus, diverting limited staff and resources to support missions beyond its scope and authority, spending well over a billion dollars to welcome illegal aliens.”
Lawmakers appeared to take steps recently to improve FEMA. In December, the Senate passed a bipartisan bill directing the agency to create a plan to better manage its workforce to be well-equipped to aid communities in dealing with natural disasters.
Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), one of the authors of the bill, said that communities count on the agency to help them recover in the aftermath of natural disasters such as severe storms.
