Governor Bryan, center, and former Governor Kenneth Mapp, left, during Mr. Bryan's inauguration ceremony in January 2019 By. KAREEM ALEXANDER FOR VI CONSORTIUM
Governor Albert Bryan during a brief interview Monday afternoon told the Consortium that the well over $100 million FEMA contends the territory owes the federal agency stem from lapses made during the Mapp administration following Hurricanes Irma and Maria's impact on the territory.
Mr. Bryan's comments follow a Consortium report on the matter, which cites a Dec. 7 letter sent to Mr. Bryan from FEMA informing him that the V.I. government owed the federal government more than $134 million resulting from recovery work performed in the USVI. The letter says the $134 million debt resulted from "an overall lack of supporting documentation for transactions conducted by each of the applicants, as well as limited cases of ineligibility."
Mr. Bryan sought to clear his administration from FEMA's claims of lack of supporting documentation and other irregularities. "This is from 2017 and 2018. This is what we're telling people in terms of the cleanup we've been having to do. The original was $274 million, we cleaned it up to $137 million, and then we got some more cleaning up to do once they give us some more details," the governor said.
"This is all cleanup for us. This is trying to get all this stuff that was done during the hurricanes. I'm not really throwing mud at the last administration, but it was a disaster. You figure this happened and now we're just cleaning it up," he added.
The Dec. 7 letter from FEMA Regional Administrator Von Essen, was in response to a letter from the Bryan administration that sought to provide updates on changes the V.I. government had made relative to FEMA's directive in May that the G.V.I. implement an internal control plan (ICP) that, if found to be legitimate by FEMA, would lift the current manual drawdown of funds process that slows the release of monies appropriated to the USVI for disaster recovery work. In 2017, the U.S. Virgin Islands was devastated by Hurricanes Irma and Maria, leaving all three islands badly damaged. Subsequently, the federal government poured money into the territory for immediate and longterm recovery work, with total appropriation topping $8 billion.
But most of the funds have yet to be released by FEMA, with a big hindrance being the local government's prior failure to implement the ICP, along with the funds FEMA is contending that the territory owes.
On Monday, Mr. Bryan said the manual drawdown process, though laborious, has been working. "The manual draw has been working for us thus far," he said. "I think we're going to be okay and get this number down."
The governor said though the debt FEMA says it is owed appears to be a lot, when the large sums of money being managed are considered, a better perspective is realized. "The one thing we always have to keep in mind is that if we spend $4 billion, and 1 percent $4 billion is $40 million — that's a 1 percent error — so if we get it 99 percent right, we'll still owe $40 million. So we're trying to make sure that we get it 100 percent right, and that's what has been painstaking: cleaning the stuff up and moving forward," he said.
A chart in the letter, seen here, shows the V.I. Water and Power Authority owing the most funds at $96.8 million, followed by the Dept. of Public Works at $25.1 million. The V.I. Dept. of Education owes $9.3 million, according to FEMA. See chart below:
Mr. Essen, the FEMA regional administrator, had requested from the G.V.I. on Sept. 1 additional information relative to the establishment of the ICP, which was first requested in May. The request also demanded that the government provide its staffing plan and infrastructure to support the ICP, as well as milestones for hiring and execution of the plan.
FEMA also requested that the G.V.I. provide documentation to "remediate improper payment findings."
The local government on July 27 provided FEMA with initial documentation to satisfy the federal agency's requirements. However, in the Sept. 1 response from Mr. Essen, the federal agency identified a number of deficiencies in the government's July provision and asked that a followup response include the following:
- Sufficiently detail or clearly demonstrate the separate and shared roles and responsibilities and location for management and oversight of responsibilities between the Virgin Islands Territorial Emergency Management Agency and the Office of Disaster Recovery.
- Sufficiently detail all grants award administration responsibilities as outlined in 2 CFR Part 200
- Sufficiently detail all disaster programs and how each is administered for the Public Assistance (PA), Hazard Mitigation Grant Program (HMGP) and Individual Assistance (IA) programs
- Sufficiently detail sub-monitoring activities to include frequency of corrective action plans, including A-133 sub-recipient monitoring
- Sufficiently detail separation of duties among staff assigned to manage these awards
- Sufficiently demonstrate or outline risk assessments conducted
The ICP plan should also "sufficiently demonstrate by a comprehensive administration and financial organizational chart the chain of authority for oversight of disaster awards (PA, HMGP), "and sufficiently detail job descriptions and oversight authorities to maintain internal control."
According to FEMA, the USVI responded to the federal government's requests on Sept. 12, and the federal agency found the ICP and ICP staffing plans to be acceptable.
However, the remediation of fiscal year 2018 improper payment findings failed. "Region II reviewed the documentation provided and the results reflect an overall lack of supporting documentation for transactions conducted by each of the [listed] applicants as well as limited cases of ineligibility," FEMA wrote.
FEMA planned a meeting within 30 days of the latest letter, which was sent on Dec. 7, "to discuss actions FEMA will take to monitor the effectiveness of the USVI's internal controls, expectations for future drawdown documentation requirements, and address any questions related to the notice of debt and appeal rights."
Monday wasn't the first time Mr. Bryan cast blame on his predecessor for the issues faced today. In May, he called out former Governor Kenneth Mapp for seemingly insurmountable complications facing the $766 million federal Sheltering & Temporary Essential Power (STEP) Program, stating that Mr. Mapp left behind a "diabolical mess."
U.S. Senator John Kennedy had initiated a Congressional investigation whose goal was to learn why U.S. subcontractors owed hundreds of millions of dollars have yet to be paid in full after performing work in the territory almost two years ago. These companies, which uprooted their workforce and brought them to the territory to help rebuild after Hurricanes Irma and Maria, paid upfront costs such as salaries, stipends, hotel stay, transportation and more, with the promise of payment from the Government of the Virgin Islands.
"We have been working on this diabolical mess created by the Mapp administration for the last year,” Mr. Bryan said during one of his coronavirus response update press events in May. "So any help that we're getting, Kennedy or whoever wants to have an investigation, you know, let them have an investigation. One of the things that is causing this is because it was just not really handled well and now we're paying the price for that."
The man who currently leads the territory's STEP program is Virgin Islands Housing Finance Authority Director, Daryl Griffith. Mr. Griffith, however, is the same person who was at the helm during the Mapp administration. According to Mr. Griffith, as of May, the local government owed contractors $366 million. An additional $150 million in construction soft costs was being contested by FEMA as of May.
