Florida and Palm Beach County School District Did Not Properly Administer $9.2 Million of FEMA Grant Funds Awarded for Hurricane Wilma Damages

The Palm Beach County School District, Florida (District) received a $15.0 million grant award from the Florida Division of Emergency Management (Florida), a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grantee for Hurricane Jeanne damages in September 2004. The District did not fully comply with Federal procurement requirements for contract work valued at $7.7 million. Florida, as the grantee, was responsible for ensuring that the District was aware of and followed all Federal requirements. Normally, we would question such improper costs; however, we are not in this case because FEMA said the costs were reasonable and allowed the costs at project closeout using the agency’s authority granted under 44 CFR 13.6(c). We also identified $145,145 of ineligible costs consisting of $98,645 of unreasonable contract costs and $46,500 in duplicate benefits.