Disaster Response: Agencies Should Assess Contracting Workforce Needs and Purchase Card Fraud Risk

Abstract

The 2017 and 2018 hurricanes and California wildfires affected millions of people and caused billions of dollars in damages. Extreme weather events are expected to become more frequent and intense due to climate change. Federal contracts for goods and services play a key role in disaster response and recovery, and government purchase cards can be used by agency staff to buy needed items. GAO was asked to review federal response and recovery efforts related to recent disasters. This report examines the extent to which selected agencies planned for their disaster response contracting activities, assessed their contracting workforce needs, and assessed the fraud risk related to their use of purchase cards for disaster response. GAO selected six agencies based on contract obligations for 2017 and 2018 disasters; analyzed federal procurement and agency data; reviewed agencies policies on workforce planning, purchase card use, and fraud risk; and analyzed purchase card data. FEMA was not included in the examination of workforce planning due to prior GAO work.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 01, 2020
Accession Number
AD1149424

Entities

People

  • Marie A. Mak

Organizations

  • United States Government Accountability Office

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Biomedical
  • Cyber
  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Business Administration
  • Climate Change
  • Coast Guard
  • Data Analysis
  • Department Of Defense
  • Department Of Homeland Security
  • Environment
  • Environmental Protection
  • Governments
  • Homeland Security
  • National Governments
  • National Security
  • Personnel Management
  • Risk Management
  • United States
  • United States Government

Fields of Study

  • Medicine
  • Political science

Readers

  • Emergency Management and Homeland Security.
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.