FEMA's "Good Stewardship Council" meets to serve taxpayers' interests
Members of Gulf Coast Recovery Office's (GCRO) Good Stewardship Council (GSC) recently met in Mobile, Alabama to discuss key objectives in managing taxpayer's dollars. These objectives include maintaining internal controls; developing better cost controls; and strengthening business practices.
FEMA's GCRO established the GSC to provide effective oversight of resources while achieving the recovery mission of the largest natural disaster in American history.
Our mantra is "to not sacrifice the recovery mission, but to honor the sacrifices of the American workers and taxpayers who trust us to be good stewards of their resources," said Jim Stark, Acting Associate Deputy Administrator for the FEMA Gulf Coast Recovery Office.
The council's goals and efforts support the Federal Emergency Management Agency's Administrator, David Paulison, objective of building a world class emergency management agency that is responsive to disaster victims while serving as good stewards of the taxpayer's investment. The highly successful venue promotes three key objectives: (1) enhance internal controls, (2) develop better cost controls, and (3) strengthen business practices.
One of several positive results of the Good Stewardship Council meeting was the development of a formal budgeting process for the massive recovery effort across the gulf coast. The first-time recovery budget effort enhanced accountability of the two major components of recovery costs: (1) program costs delivered directly to the disaster victims through public assistance, individual assistance, and hazard mitigation grants, and (2) discretionary costs to deliver the actual programs. FEMA now has better transparency in providing costs to run a Transitional Recovery Office such as leases, payroll, travel, training, etc. As a result, the FY08 budget submission reflects a dramatic 53 percent reduction in the Transitional Recovery Office (TRO) discretionary costs compared to FY07 actual costs. The projected cost savings are in the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Internal controls have also been enhanced as several business practices were streamlined or questioned during the process to determine budgetary costs. Program performance will also improve when tracked to budget execution and variances are analyzed. In short, a cultural change has occurred as a result of this budget formulation process.
Representatives from FEMA's Geographic Information System Solutions Branch demonstrated phase one of the newly developed Capturing Human Intelligence Project (CHIP). The project is designed to effectively standardize FEMA's processes; improve internal controls; and share existing best practices to improve current TRO operations.
"Good stewardship is firmly taking hold in the gulf coast as both supervisors and employees alike continue to treat resources as if they are their own," said Joseph Garcia, Chief Financial Director for the Gulf Coast Recovery Office in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Last Modified: Thursday, 27-Mar-2008 13:14:28 EDT