Review of Federal Emergency Management Agency Mission Assignments

TVA provides engineering and technical assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for major disasters and emergencies using TVA retirees who are working for a TVA subcontractor. In April 2006, the Department of Homeland Security requested all Offices of the Inspector General to perform a review of the 2005 Gulf Coast Hurricane Assignments performed by their agency to evaluate their agency's procedures pertaining to the billing and reimbursements for FEMA mission assignments.Our review found TVA (1) did not have adequate controls in place to ensure the accuracy of costs TVA paid to its contractor and subsequently billed to FEMA and (2) could not provide documentation of FEMA's approval of TVA's use of a markup rate to recover its costs of administering the retiree subcontract. TVA management subsequently instituted new procedures to correct the deficiencies identified by our audit. Based on the new procedures, we determined TVA is generally in compliance with federal guidelines pertaining to the billing and reimbursements for FEMA mission assignments. However, we recommended FEMA provide written authorization for TVA's use of a specific markup to recover its costs of administering the retiree subcontract. Summary Only