Report 2009-119.4 Recommendation 3 Responses

Report 2009-119.4: California Emergency Management Agency: Despite Receiving $136 Million in Recovery Act Funds in June 2009, It Only Recently Began Awarding These Funds and Lacks Plans to Monitor Their Use (Release Date: May 2010)

Recommendation #3 To: Emergency Management Agency

To plan its subrecipient monitoring activities properly, Cal EMA should identify the workload associated with monitoring its Recovery Act JAG Program subrecipients and the workload standards necessary to determine the number of program staff needed.

6-Month Agency Response

Cal EMA reported that its goal is to monitor all 229 Recovery Act subrecipients through site visits by June 30, 2011, and reported it had completed onsite monitoring for 84 of the 229 subrecipients as of December 13, 2010. It also provided its estimate of the number of work hours needed to conduct at least one site visit during the grant period for each subrecipient. The estimate identified that it needed 8.62 personnel years to perform this work. In addition, Cal EMA reported that it hired a retired annuitant to assist existing staff in conducting site visits. However, Cal EMA pointed out that it is limited to spending $592,000 each fiscal year on state operations to administer the Recovery Act projects and it intends to stay within that amount. Cal EMA also stated that it does not have eight staff who are dedicated 100 percent to the Recovery Act funded projects, but rather several program and monitoring staff who administer and monitor other federal- and state-funded projects as well. (See 2011-406 p. 149)

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Fully Implemented

All Recommendations in 2009-119.4

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.