By The Star Staff
The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) will extend to December 2025 the benefit of expedited closure to projects led through the Public Assistance Program, Central Office for Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3) Executive Director Manuel Laboy Rivera announced Sunday.
Laboy said FEMA granted the extension, given the high level of oversight and transparency that COR3 demonstrated in the audit processes for disbursements, known as “Validate as You Go,” or VAYGo.
“The expedited closure is a significant advancement because it lightens the administrative process of reconstruction works and the amount of documentation required by FEMA from COR3 during the process of closing the projects,” he said.
“The audit covered fiscal years 2021 and 2022, and the results were practically perfect, as no errors were reported in the process exceeding 0.001% in the first two quarters of 2021 and 0.0001% in the last two quarters of that year and in 2022,” Laboy said. “This shows that at COR3 we are fulfilling one of our main purposes of overseeing the correct use of recovery funds following the applicable laws and regulations, which gives us greater value, credibility and confidence before the federal government.”
The benefit was granted in light of the strict disbursement processes established by FEMA and overseen by COR3, which government agencies, municipalities, and non-profit organizations must fully comply with, he added.
The expedited closing process eliminates the need for COR3 to provide FEMA with voluminous documentation during project closures for state, municipal or non-profit government entities that have complied with providing COR3 with all documents required by FEMA in the disbursement process.
It is expected that FEMA will complete the audit for fiscal year 2023 by the end of December. The expedited closing privilege for Puerto Rico applies to the closing process of projects developed due to the passing of hurricanes Irma and Maria in September 2017 and all disasters declared after October 2019, including the COVID-19 pandemic.
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