Federal Reports

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has not prioritized compliance with the Disaster Mitigation Act of 2000 (DMA 2000). According to FEMA officials, the agency has instead focused on immediate needs of disaster operations and other high- profile initiatives necessary to carry out its mission. As such, FEMA has not published regulations and related policies as required by the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (Stafford Act) to reduce repetitive damages to facilities, including the Nation’s roads and bridges. We made four recommendations to FEMA, including that FEMA should prioritize the DMA 2000 by addressing the unresolved implementation issues and publishing a regulation as required.

We found that SBA established its May 2020 COVID-19 Reconstitution Plan in accordance with applicable federal guidance. We identified issues with the implementation of the reconstitution plan that should be addressed to help the agency safeguard its employees from contracting and spreading COVID-19 in the workplace.We found the agency did not follow occupancy procedures for advancing or reverting phases at its Washington, DC headquarters. SBA also did not implement exposure tracking protocols to ensure it consistently traced COVID-19 cases. We found the agency did not consistently notify its staff of presumed or confirmed COVID-19 cases in the sampling we analyzed. SBA did not consistently contact potentially exposed personnel and ensure employees completed 14-day quarantine periods.SBA replaced the reconstitution plan with its new COVID-19 Workplace Safety Plan in February 2021. We made one recommendation for SBA to enforce the requirements of its new workplace safety plan by consistently applying procedures for occupancy and exposure tracking and to accurately record and maintain supporting documentation for all reported COVID-19 cases. SBA management agreed with our recommendation and planned actions resolve the recommendation.

An Electronic Technician based in Boston resigned from the company on July 12, 2021, prior to his disciplinary hearing. From March 30, 2021, through April 30, 2021, the former employee violated company policies by fraudulently claiming and accepting payment for over 62 hours of straight time and overtime hours that he did not work or was not authorized to work, for which he received over $2,825 in compensation. When we interviewed the employee, he initially lied about his actions but eventually admitted that he did not work all of the hours he claimed. The technician is not eligible for rehire.