Suntiva Provides Exhaustive Contract Review and Compliance Analysis after Hurricane Katrina

THE CHALLENGE

On August 29, 2005, one of the worst hurricanes in United States history slammed into the gulf coast.  Many coastal cities were devastated by the storm, and in particular, more than 50 levees in New Orleans were breeched and caused over 80% of the city to flood.  In all, at least 1,800 people lost their lives.  In response to the storm, the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) mobilized support for survivors and evacuees in the area, eventually writing thousands of government contracts, purchase orders, and credit card transactions to provide temporary housing, food and water, and other essentials.

In the aftermath of the storm, reports surfaced and inquiries were made as to the performance of FEMA contracting efforts related to hurricane relief.  In particular, DHS wanted to perform a contract compliance audit, assess FEMA performance under these high-stress conditions, and gain valuable lessons learned to improve possible future efforts of this nature.

THE SUNTIVA SOLUTION

Suntiva staff was selected by DHS to provide a thorough compliance review and audit of the FEMA contracts awarded in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.  A well-rounded team was assigned to this effort, bringing 100+ years of combined federal procurement expertise to the engagement.  The team reviewed thousands of award actions across 63 different compliance factors, and used our web-based decision support tool to support this analysis.  The results of this analysis formed the baseline for numerous process improvement initiatives.

THE RESULTS

• DHS and FEMA were able to proactively identify contracting challenges and issues in advance of congressional inquiries and audit(s)
• Trend analysis was successfully used to determine areas that required emphasis and training
• Lessons Learned were developed and implemented to improve future operations and preparations for other major disasters
• Automation was used to ensure consistent, standard ways of looking at the data so that it could be re-used and re-created as needed for further decision support regarding future FEMA contingency procurement operations

 

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