The Office of Inspector General (“OIG”) of the Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) continues to audit the extent to which the Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) is meeting disaster survivors' transitional shelter needs under FEMA's Transitional Sheltering Assistance (“TSA”) program after the California wildfires and Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria in 2017.
The OIG now has determined that FEMA does not require disaster survivors to notify the agency when they vacate hotels participating in the TSA program, thus allowing the hotels to continue to bill FEMA for unoccupied rooms.
The OIG said that because FEMA is unaware when disaster survivors vacate the hotels, the agency does not know the magnitude of unnecessary hotel charges.
According to the OIG, unless FEMA requires notification of hotel departures, it increases its risks of paying for unoccupied hotel rooms. These issues may affect FEMA's ability to detect potential fraud, waste, and abuse of TSA program funds, as well as survivors' ability to comply with TSA requirements.
Consequently, the OIG found, FEMA could not account for associated TSA payments it may have paid since August 2017, related to the 2017 hurricane season and California wildfires.
Additionally, the OIG said, FEMA does not include its Office of the Chief Security Officer Tip Line information on the TSA Terms and Conditions form used by hotels and disaster survivors and it does not require hotels to provide disaster survivors with copies of the completed forms.
The OIG said that FEMA agreed with the OIG's initial findings and that it has initiated actions to improve the TSA program.
Learn more: OIG-19-37
Steven A. Meyerowitz
Steven A. Meyerowitz, a Harvard Law School graduate, is the founder and president of Meyerowitz Communications Inc., a law firm marketing communications consulting company. He may be contacted at [email protected].