§612 Accountability

Summary

Grantees who spend $500,000 or more in federal money in a year must send their full financial and compliance audit to the Administrator. The Department and its grantees must give the Comptroller General and GAO staff full access to grant records. For the grant programs under sections 604, 605, and 762, the Administrator must set rules to find and report big improper payments. The Administrator must review each State and high-risk urban area that gets Department grants at least once every two years to check that funds were used legally and helped with disaster and terror preparedness. Congress authorized $8,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2008, 2009, and 2010 for those reviews and then “such sums as are necessary” for 2011 and after. If audits show recoverable improper payments for grants worth $1,000,000 or more, the Administrator must do a recovery audit when it is cost effective. If a grantee breaks the rules, the Administrator can reduce or stop payments, restrict how funds are used, refer the case to the Inspector General, or take other actions until the grantee follows the law. The Administrator must also require exercises, regular performance testing, remedial action plans, and annual State preparedness reports. States, high-risk urban areas, and directly eligible tribes must file a report within 30 days after each federal fiscal quarter listing amounts obligated, amounts received and spent, and a short description of how the money was used. The last quarterly report of the fiscal year must also show total amounts and dates of funds received that year, who got subgrants and how much, dates and amounts of disbursements made under section 611(a)(1) or mutual aid/sharing rules, and how each recipient or subgrantee used the funds. Any State applying under section 605 must send an annual State preparedness report as required by section 752(c). Each year the Administrator must send Congress the Federal Preparedness Report and a full, detailed explanation of how risk and grant allocations were calculated (the variables, weights, why they relate to risk, and any changes). That explanation must be unclassified when possible, may include a classified annex if needed, and must be provided by October 31 or 30 days before any program guidance. At the end of each fiscal year the Administrator must report how much grant money went to Indian tribes, either directly or through subgrants.