Save Award 2010 Ideas

To save on fraud, waste and duplication of Federal funding I would suggest consolidating all debris removal under a declared disaster to fall under the responsibility of FEMA.

Benchmark disaster impact costs and use savings below benchmark to reduce each state’s match by 50% of cost savings during a disaster. Partnering to reduce cost would save billions. Additionally, states should receive a reduced match requirement if states and their citizens develop disaster response funds through insurance premiums. Insurance companies reduce costs on home and business insurance for those that mitigate... more »

The EPICS database could potentially save the Federal, State, and local governments millions of dollars if implemented. The idea behind the database was generated from a meeting with New York Congressman Tim H. Bishop and Federal Coordinating Officer Albert L. Lewis in early 2010 during the recovery stage of the FEMA declared disaster FEMA-1869-DR-NY. The Joint Field Office then investigated the suggestion from Congressman... more »

FEMA utilizes an outside contractor as a language line interpreter. When we connect with this language line, we get people from South America, Spain, etc. We have TRAINED Human Service Specialists in ALL facilities who speak fluent Spanish as their First Language and we are not allowed to utilize those skilled workers by transferring the call to them instead of an expensive outside agency. We are already paying the FEMA... more »

Reduce the number of wildfires in the western US by increasing commercial logging permits in key areas. Besides the reduction in personal properties destroyed, there should be a significant reduction in funds allocated for fire-fighter salaries.

Have FEMA establish a pool of volunteer federal employes who are willing to take leave with out pay to volunteer during national disasaters such as Katrina and Gulf oiil spill clean up. Allow loss of pay and work effort to be counted as a charitable deduction for tax purposes. Revise LWOP guidlines to facilitate volunteeism without loss of benefits (paid bi-weekly). Initiative wouild reflect well on the civil service,... more »

I work at a FEMA National Processing Service Center where applicant claims are received and processed from Disaster related events.

In certain cases Applicants receive temporary housing (rental assistance) and every two months are eligible for additional rental assistance for up to 18 months.

I suggest a damage re-inspection and / or desktop review be made to ensure the continuing rental assistance need after the... more »

Idea:
Add responsible Agency/Branch/Component/Date information to every form, document, manual, publication, or web page.
With this ANY staff member can easily identify the agency to contact when changes are needed in.

Example (FEMA/VA-NPSC/NCT/07-19-2010)

Facts: Thousands of man hours are being wasted every year when publications need to be changed or updated and author is not readily identifiable.
Too often, if... more »

FEMA has thousands of Disaster Reservists (DAE's) in which hundreds of thousands of tax payer dollars a year are spent to train and re-train. At times Reservists may go months without being deployed while others are deployed nearly year round. When PFT positions become available at the Regional Level or Headquarters, reservists who do not have military experience are completely overlooked, when they have ample training... more »

Reduce the hours of operations for the National Processing Services Centers at FEMA during periods of decreased disaster activity in order to save the costs of night and Sunday differential salaries. By reducing the hours of operation at the NPSCs to mirror more standard business hours (8a-6p M-F), we can reduce differential payments to staff which can get as high as 30% of their salary on Sunday evenings. The vast... more »

FEMA contracts inspectors to perform on site damage assessments.

FEMA Task Monitors (TM) look for certain data patterns that automatically indicate a problem with the contractor inspector data.

The FEMA TM's have reports created used to analyze and identify problematic data patterns.

(Reports created by the National Processing Service Center (NPSC) Enterprise Coordination & Information Management (EC&IM) Section... more »

I suggest you eliminate the reuse of Inspector Numbers (identifiers) for FEMA Contract Inspectors

Contractors have been reusing Inspector Numbers (i.e. assign an "old" sequential inspector number to a "new" inspector.). This leads to confusion as "old" numbers tend to be associated with "seasoned" or "experienced" contract inspectors.

Review of Inspections with "old" Inspector Numbers tend to be cursory / casual... more »

I suggest creation of specific data section for Congressional Inquires FEMA processes.

Based on FEMA Preshift dated 4/22/2010 that is partially copied below

"CONGRESSIONAL INQUIRIES

Caseworker should review the Events Log and the Correspondence Tab to identify when a Congressional Inquiry has been initiated and resolved. If there are no comments in the events log that clearly outlines if a Congressional Inquiry has... more »

When awarding Arbitration decisions ensure the arbitration Arbitors use the programmatic guidance and regulations for that Agency that is awarding the grants, such as FEMA when making determinations. Otherwise, they are not following the letter or intent of the law and when the OIG auditor's prepare their audit the grantee's or sub-grantees will be out of compliance with DHS guidelines and will have to pay funding back.... more »

Prohibit redirection of FEMA grant funds from their stated purpose. Audit all FEMA grants to local communities to ensure funding was used for the intended purpose. FEMA provided grants for several locations in Virginia to buy generators for their emergency shelters, but the funding was redirected for other purposes and the shelters still do not have generators. The local emergency management representatives state that... more »