The Seattle Auditors The LA-RFO Internal Review team, hailing from Seattle, stands at the ready to tackle the fine details of auditing disaster recovery operations. (from left Ronald Sabada, Terry Nuzzo, Team Leader; Raymond Byrd and Steven Binns. LA-RFO Photo by Leah Broadway. Back to Features

Response learning helps auditors "write the book" on disasters
By George Marcec, public affairs specialist, Louisiana Recovery Field Office

NEW ORLEANS, LA … Who’s minding the disaster till?  How are our recovery tax dollars being spent?

For the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Louisiana Recovery Field Office (LA-RFO), their Internal Review (IR) team is on the case, watching the cashbox and making sure taxpayers are getting the most for their hurricane recovery dollars.   

The LA-RFO has been helping hurricane-damaged communities recover for the past two years.  Communities have had the choice to use the Corps as their program manager for recovery or use Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funds to hire whomever else they wish to. 

When the Corps gets the mission, the Corps and its interagency auditing team, consisting of Corps Internal Review evaluators and Defense Contract Audit auditors play a vital role working side-by-side with mission managers, contracting officers, and quality assurance inspectors to quickly identify and correct internal control weaknesses, reducing opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse.   

Having the Corps’ IR team involved early on and throughout the mission contributes significantly to efficient program management and fiscal accountability.  The majority of the IR evaluators are veteran certified public accountants who retired from senior positions with the Defense Contract Audit Agency and various Federal audit organizations.  

Historically, many communities have chosen the Corps to manage recovery operations, due specifically to their strong record of tracking and accounting recovery costs.   

A community that decides to manage the program themselves must clear FEMA audits before receiving reimbursements.  Mistakes can produce catastrophic results. 

From the inception and throughout the multi-faceted LA-RFO recovery mission of providing emergency ice, water and power; installing temporary ‘blue roofs;’ rebuilding schools, police and fire stations; demolishing thousands of storm-damaged buildings; and hauling away 28 million cubic yards of debris, the IR team has not only been vigilant, but also has been “rewriting the book” on disaster accountability.  

Terry Nuzzo, Seattle rehired annuitant from the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA) is the current LA-RFO IR Team Leader.  He, his predecessors, and their teams of auditors have been in the trenches, ensuring the RFO, and the taxpayers, are getting their money’s worth.  

 “We focus on what could result in increased and unnecessary costs to the government,” said Nuzzo.  

The dual disasters of Hurricanes Rita and Katrina have provided a proverbial auditor’s learning center using this unprecedented disaster and an unparalleled government response. 

The IR team’s audit process is divided into two disciplines, the first in the recovery field.   

“Typical IR operations include ensuring that Corps contractors are doing what they are paid to do,” said Nuzzo.  The auditors verify debris load tickets for individual trucks, observe debris load assessments, dumping operations, and a myriad other controls and checks.  

Also rolled into their field operations is safety over-watch. The auditors check on-site safety procedures and provide recommendations.  “Even though we’re not the safety people, we are aware of the safety standards,” said Nuzzo.  “When we see deficiencies we report them.” 

The other side of the audit coin is monitoring and reviewing the LA-RFO’s core internal processes or how the field office handles its day-to-day business.  The IR team tracks and audits the inner workings from large to small.  

 “Our team looks at every aspect of the mission.  We dig into things like, ‘Are we doing missions within FEMA’s scope of work?” said Nuzzo.  “And is our staffing commensurate with our workload and are our operational procedures efficient?”   He added that they also track more mundane, yet important, stats like employee time sheets as well as travel requests and costs. 

One advantage the LA-RFO IR team has in preserving a sustained audit trail is the benefit of an over-arching view.  The team is a function of Headquarters, United States Army Corps of Engineers (HQ-USACE), which gives them ‘big picture’ capabilities and connections.  

Getting the disaster recovery auditing information, findings, and lessons learned more readily available on a larger scale is an area where the IR Team’s strong links with HQ-USACE pays big dividends, literally.  Findings can be quickly shared throughout the Corps. 

“Historically in disaster recovery operations, the lessons learned reside with the Corps district executing the mission,” said Nuzzo.  “It’s challenging for this information to be mobile to other districts in the case of future operations.” 

“But the IR process at disaster recovery offices,” he continued, “is not a typical district function.”  This, for lack of a better term, ‘autonomy,’ gives IR teams at future disaster missions the leverage to preserve their processes thereby providing continuity within their ranks from one disaster recovery operation to another. 

Given the LA-RFO IR teams’ two-year historic ‘rewriting the book’ on the auditing of protracted, disaster recovery operations, George Sullivan, another LA-RFO team leader decided recently, with good reason, to ‘write the book:’ a comprehensive field guide covering the entire IR recovery operations process. 

Hurricanes Katrina and Rita have become teachers to these members of the audit team, who themselves teach accounting and auditing principles at the college level at home. 

While the quality and continuity of LA-RFO audit teams remained constant throughout the operation, they didn’t always have the luxury of time in putting ‘pen to paper.’   

“Our lessons learned and other supporting information we were using were usually in our heads,” said Nuzzo.  Thanks to George Sullivan those days are long gone.  George Sullivan, a fellow rehired annuitant, has been the LA-RFO IR Team Leader for three previous deployments on Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.   

“George has put together this great IR field guide,” said Nuzzo.  “It’s virtually a blueprint for setting up the IR office.  It lays out how we’re going to operate, how we’re structured and highlights areas where strong internal controls are critical during recovery operations to reduce opportunities for fraud, waste and abuse” he continued.  “It’s kind of the IR Bible for us now.” 

This IR field guide,’ will be passed up to HQ-USACE where it will reside ready for subsequent disaster recovery IR team missions.  

 “Corps headquarters will hand this field guide to future IR team chiefs,” said Nuzzo.  “It will give the next team a big head start and they’ll be better prepared to hit the ground running.” 

Sullivan’s and Nuzzo’s LA-RFO IR team has made major strides in helping prospective disaster recovery audit teams march into the next mission better equipped to ensure appropriate use of taxpayer dollars during hurricane response and recovery operations.