FEMA could enhance its human capital management and training, GAO has said after reviewing human capital-related guidance, interviewing agency officials, and conducting focus group sessions with disaster assistance employees.
FEMA has obligated $33 billion in disaster assistance payments since 2007 and it relies heavily upon its cadre of disaster assistance employees (DAEs), a reserve workforce that interacts with disaster survivors.
While the agency has taken steps to enhance management of the DAE, program, such as establishing a credentialing program, management controls and training could be strengthened, according to GAO-12-538.
For example, FEMA’s regional DAE managers are responsible for hiring DAEs, but FEMA has not established hiring criteria and has limited salary criteria, GAO said.
It said that by establishing standardized criteria for making hiring and salary decisions, FEMA would be better positioned to hire people with requisite skills and better ensure consistency across regions.
Further, FEMA’s performance appraisal system for DAEs is not consistent with internal control standards and it lacks criteria for supervisors to assign DAEs satisfactory or unsatisfactory ratings, said GAO, though it acknowledged FEMA is planning to transform the DAE program.
DHS agreed to have FEMA devise a means of monitoring regional implementation of DAE policies, better track criteria for hiring and compensating DAEs, and to come up with a plan to train DAEs within a set time frame.