high-risk grantee

This is a Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General (OIG) special report on Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and FEMA recipient and sub recipient disaster-related procurements. FEMA is currently responding to some of the most catastrophic disasters in U.S. history — Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, and the October 2017, California wildfires. Because of the massive scale of damage and the large number and high-dollar contracts that will likely be awarded, there is a significant risk that billions of taxpayer dollars may be exposed to waste, fraud, and abuse.

The Omaha Tribe’s serious financial management weaknesses combined with inadequate and missing documentation resulted in unreliable financial records. As a result, we have little confidence that the transactions recorded in the accounting system actually occurred or that the tribe completed its FEMA-authorized projects. Therefore, we question $13.9 million as unsupported. Due to the unreliable financial information, we calculated the amount unsupported as the entire $16.9 million FEMA provided for both grants, less $2.8 million in unused Federal funding that FEMA should put to better use; $165,000 in unclaimed insurance coverage; and approximately $74,749 that we were able to verify as supported and eligible.