Good Stewardship Council formed for Gulf Coast Recovery
FEMA's Gulf Coast Recovery Office has formed the Good Stewardship Council to provide effective oversight of resources while achieving the recovery mission.
"We strive to treat all the resources as if they were our own," states the charter adopted by the council, which is spearheaded by Gil Jamieson, Associate Deputy Administrator for Gulf Coast Recovery.
The Good Stewardship Council will monitor resources for the Gulf Coast Recovery Office and for FEMA's Transitional Recovery Offices in the Gulf Coast states of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas.
In a letter addressed to FEMA Administrator R. David Paulison, Jamieson announced the council's goals and efforts that support Mr. Paulison's own objective of "building a world class emergency management agency that is responsive to disaster victims while serving as good stewards of the taxpayers' investment."
In addition to Jamieson, the GSC is comprised of Gulf Coast Recovery Office leadership, as well as leaders from FEMA's Transitional Recovery Offices in the participating Gulf Coast states.
The council will oversee budgeting and the continued implementation of internal controls for the recovery process. Simply put, internal control means things that should happen "do" and things that should not happen "don't."
Why are internal controls important? Because the lack of such controls can lead to erroneous payments, fraud, waste, and abuse. Strong internal control will ensure achievement of mission objectives, compliance with laws and regulations, and a proactive - not reactive - environment. The primary purpose is to determine and follow the more cost-effective means for accomplishing recovery goals and objectives.
The group will also direct a program to standardize current long-term recovery functions and activities; capture and share best practices among all the Gulf recovery offices; and flowchart tasks to identify internal control "chokepoints." The goal is to assemble a complete set of Transitional Recovery Office procedures for the next long-term recovery. The importance of this can't be overstated. It would mean future long-term recovery offices could eliminate much of the start up confusion and hit the ground running with tried and true methods.
Since the council's first meeting in New Orleans on June 6, 2007,
performance metrics have been developed in several areas to establish compliance standards and emphasis on good stewardship of the taxpayer's money will continue throughout the course of gulf recovery.
Last Modified: Thursday, 20-Sep-2007 17:19:20 EDT