Federal Reports

This limited scope review is a follow up to our 2012 country program evaluation of Peace Corps/Peru. This report focused on five findings from the 2012 evaluation related to programming, training, and safety and security. We found that the post had appropriately responded to each of our 2012 recommendations, and the actions taken had a positive effect on the issues identified in 2012. There are no recommendations in this follow up.

We determined that Volunteer Energy Cooperative (Volunteer) accounted for and expended FEMA funds according to Federal regulations and FEMA guidelines. Volunteer properly accounted for and adequately supported its claim of $8.3 million for disaster-related activities. However, Volunteer’s contracting process did not meet all Federal procurement requirements. Volunteer used its own contracting procedures to award $6.5 million of noncompetitive contracts for disaster-related work. We concluded that exigent circumstances warranted Volunteer’s use of noncompetitive contracts. However, we noted that Volunteer’s contracting procedures did not meet other Federal procurement requirements. We are not questioning any contract costs in this case because of the exigent nature of the work and other extenuating circumstances regarding the timing of the disaster declaration and completion of the contract work. Because the audit did not identify any issues requiring further action from FEMA Region IV, we consider this audit closed.

The Indiana Department of Homeland Security (Indiana) received $27.9 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) funds to disburse to eligible subgrantees for projects in 10 disasters declared from June 2004 to April 2014. Our objective was to determine whether Indiana administered the grant program in accordance with Federal regulations and ensured subgrantees properly accounted for and expended FEMA funds. Indiana unable to demonstrate it has procedures and processes to ensure compliance with all Federal monitoring and financial reporting requirements. Specifically, Indiana did not perform required subgrant monitoring during project implementation and post closeout; submit quarterly progress and financial reports that met requirements; and comply with financial management requirements to ensure subgrantees accounted for and expended FEMA grant funds according to Federal regulations and FEMA guidelines.