Summary and Key Findings of Fiscal Year 2017 FEMA Disaster Grant and Program Audits

In FY 2017, we issued 37 reports concerning Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grants, programs, and operations. The reports included 16 grant audits, 13 proactive audits, and 8 program audits. Our balanced review approach continues to produce a significant number of recommendations that could put funds to better use before problems occur. We made 79 recommendations to FEMA that identified potential monetary benefits of nearly $2.2 billion. Two recommendations from our report, “FEMA Should Disallow $2.04 Billion Approved for New Orleans Infrastructure Repairs,” OIG-17-97-D, July 24, 2017, accounted for a significant amount of the potential monetary benefits identified. FEMA disagreed with the recommendations, and the OIG appealed to the DHS Audit Follow-up and Resolution Official for resolution. On July 12, 2018, the DHS Resolution Official concluded that FEMA acted appropriately and within its authority when awarding the funds. Collectively, our FY 2017 work shows that FEMA continues to face systemic problems and operational challenges, and fails to manage disaster relief grants and funds adequately. Furthermore, FEMA remains ineffective at holding grant recipients accountable for properly managing disaster relief funds and providing adequate monitoring or technical assistance to subgrantees. We continue to identify problems such as improper contracting activities, and ineligible and unsupported expenditures. This report contains no recommendations, but provides an opportunity for FEMA to assess the need for change based on the recurring nature of our findings.