OVERVIEW
HGA partnered with the State of New York in implementing GOSR’s FEMA Public Assistance (PA)/Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) Match Program, which utilizes CDBG-DR funds to provide the non-federal match required under FEMA PA. The Program included more than 16,000 project worksheets (PWs) written or funded by FEMA for eligible activities due to Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, Tropical Storm Lee, 2013 severe winter storms, and 2013 severe flooding event.
SOLUTION
The Program’s goal, and our mission, was to ensure that all eligible units of government across the state received an equitable distribution of CDBG-DR funding across multiple disasters. HGA prioritized, reviewed, and evaluated more than 4,100 FEMA PA PWs to determine project eligibility including tie to the appropriate storm and national objective. In order to recommend disbursement of CDBG-DR funding for the non-federal share match, we also reviewed documentation to ensure all compliance requirements were addressed such as procurement, financial management, Section 3, labor compliance, etc. Additionally, HGA’s System of Record, which was developed specifically for the PA Match program, provided a review, recommendation, and approval process that documented all compliance requirements and ensured detailed, transparent reporting to promote efficiency and cost-effectiveness.
Our years of supporting federally-funded programs have provided HGA an understanding of the regulations that can affect the progress of projects. We know how to mitigate the risks inherent to these programs and move projects to closeout. For the GOSR PA Match Program, HGA made the recommendation to only provide documentation to support the non-federal share or “match” payment amount. Instead requiring 100% documentation for every dollar, HGA saved GOSR significant project delivery funding and increased production with little to no increase in risks for non-compliance.