CHARLESTON, W.Va. — FEMA, which has been concerned for years about West Virginia’s oversight of federal grants, says it is seeing improvement.
“I feel very positive about the direction Homeland Security and Emergency Management is heading in,” said MaryAnn Tierney, regional administrator for the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Region III.
She pointed toward recent changes that have taken place, particularly the naming of Michael Todorovich as director West Virginia’s Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
The federal agency also has been working closely with West Virginia Adjutant General James Hoyer.
“I am enthusiastic about Mike Todorovich and General Hoyer’s leadership. I think the Governor’s Office has taken an interest in the work processes in that office.”
Years of FEMA concerns about whether West Virginia has the proper safeguards on federal grant money were highlighted this week in a legislative audit report.
“The federal action is the result of several years of DHSEM’s inability to comply with grant requirements and failure to remedy identified issues,” wrote the state’s Performance Evaluation and Research Division.
In a letter dated Nov. 12, 2015, FEMA notified then-state Emergency Services Director Jimmy Gianato that the agency was placing West Virginia’s emergency management agency on mandatory manual reimbursement.
“Without proper oversight of sub-recipients, WVDHSEM cannot provide evidence that Federal Funds are being effectively managed or utilized in accordance to federal regulations,” FEMA wrote.
That meant there was greater scrutiny on West Virginia’s documentation of how federal dollars were used by sub-recipients such as local governments dealing with disaster relief.
“We felt the documentation collection and review process was inadequate and it was a material weakness that created risk and the potential for deobligations in the future,” Tierney said in a phone interview with MetroNews.
“They were not monitoring applicants effectively.”
Deobligation would mean making the state pay back the money.
West Virginia is believed to be the only state, aside from Puerto Rico, under such mandatory manual reimbursement restrictions.
“It is an unusual enforcement step the agency has in its toolbox to help applicants become compliant with our requirements,” Tierney said.
FEMA’s concerns go back years.
In the Nov. 12, 2015, letter informing Gianato of the mandatory manual reimbursement penalty, the agency made reference to warnings from several years earlier.
“Since 2011, the Grants Division supported WVDHSEM to create a financial monitoring plan, conduct site visits, write monitoring reports, and has provided guidance on following up on issues documented on monitoring visits,” the agency wrote.
“WVDHSEM continues to lack a financial monitoring system for sub-recipients, as most recently summarized after FEMA Region III’s last site visit completed on March 5, 2015.”
Since then, West Virginia has been working to comply.
Over time, the state has whittled away with corrective actions. In a letter from Nov. 13, 2017, FEMA said it had a schedule of sub-recipients to review, coming within striking distance of satisfying its requirements.
“As a reminder, only when FEMA Region III is confident that the sub-recipient financial monitoring program is fully implemented by WVDHSEM and there are no new findings for WVDHSEM regarding sub-recipient monitoring will FEMA Region III release the manual reimbursement on all open FEMA awards administered by Region III,” the agency wrote.
At the end of October, FEMA received documentation from the state’s monitoring program.
“We’re in process of reviewing it to make sure it’s acceptable and to make sure they’ve accomplished all the goals, monitored the sub-recipient,” said Regeane Frederique, grants division director for FEMA Region III, who was also on the telephone interview.
She said West Virginia has started initiatives such as grants management specialists embedded with emergency services, as well as making a grants management course available.
“So they are taking positive steps and we’re working with them to make sure they are successful,” Frederique said.
She added, “I can say I see improvement.”
Tierney agreed that West Virginia has made progress.
“We have been working very closely with West Virginia for months around this,” she said. “We’ve done a lot to support them, and they’ve been supportive of our efforts as well.”