Author: United States. Federal Emergency Management Agency. Office of Financial ManagementPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 63
Book Description
As a result of the FEMA reorganization implemented in the fall of 1993, the Chief Financial Officer was given greatly increased responsibility for operation of the Disaster Relief Fund and for supporting financial processing at disaster locations. The Northridge Earthquake, which occurred shortly after the reorganization, marked the first time the Office of Financial Management (OFM) assumed an active role in this new assignment. Major organizing and work processing challenges had to be overcome to carry out our mission, due to: (1) the fact that OFM staff was not afforded time to develop and implement detailed plans for its new responsibilities, and (2) the burden created by a record number of assistance applications. The purpose of this lessons learned report is to determine how OFM can better serve our customers and deliver sound financial management services in support of response and recovery efforts following disasters. A collateral purpose is to recommend immediate actions to be completed to ensure optimum readiness to respond in the event another catastrophic disaster occurs in the near future.