	FEMA Has Developed and Documented Misconduct Policies and Procedures for Most Employees, but Not its Entire Workforce

FEMA has developed a policy and procedures regarding misconduct  investigations that apply to all FEMA personnel and has also documented  policies and procedures regarding options to address misconduct and  appeal rights for Title 5 and CORE employees. However, FEMA has not  documented complete misconduct policies and procedures for Surge  Capacity Force members or Reservists. According to these officials, FEMA does not  suspend Reservists because they are an intermittent, at-will workforce  deployed as needed to respond to disasters. Without documented Reservist disciplinary options and appeals policies,  supervisors and Reservist employees may not be aware of all aspects of  the disciplinary and appeals process. Thus, in our July 2017 report, we  recommended that FEMA document Reservist disciplinary options and  appeals that are currently in practice at the agency. FEMA Records Data on Employee Misconduct Cases and Their Outcomes, but Could Improve the Quality and Usefulness of These Data to Identify and Address Trends

		Multiple FEMA Offices Collect Misconduct Data; FEMA OCSO Recorded Approximately 600 Misconduct Complaints from January 2014 through September 30, 2016

The three offices on the AID Committee involved in investigating and  adjudicating employee misconduct complaints each maintain separate  case tracking spreadsheets with data on employee misconduct to  facilitate their respective roles in the misconduct review process. The complaints involved alleged offenses of  employee misconduct which may or may not have been substantiated  over the course of an investigation. Aspects of FEMA’s Data Limit Their Usefulness for Identifying and Addressing Trends in Employee Misconduct

OCSO, LER, and PLB collect data on employee misconduct and  outcomes, but limited standardization of fields and entries within fields,  limited use of unique case identifiers, and a lack of documented guidance  on data entry restricts their usefulness for identifying and addressing  trends in employee misconduct. Employee misconduct information is also shared  directly with FEMA’s Chief Security Officer and Chief Counsel. FEMA also provides DHS  OIG with information on employee misconduct cases on a regular basis  through monthly reports on open investigations. FEMA’s Procedures for Tracking DHS OIG Referred Cases Need Improvement

We found that OCSO has not established effective procedures to ensure  that all cases referred to FEMA by DHS OIG are accounted for and  subsequently reviewed and addressed. We reviewed a  non-generalizable random sample of 20 fiscal year 2016 employee  misconduct complaints DHS OIG referred to FEMA for review and found  that FEMA missed 6 of the 20 complaints during the referral process and  had not reviewed them at the time of our inquiry. As a result of our review,  FEMA subsequently took action to review the complaints. The AID  Committee recommended that OCSO open inquiries in 3 of the 6 cases to  determine whether the allegations were against FEMA employees,  assigned 2 cases to LER for further review, and closed 1 case for lack of  information. The remaining 2  cases were open as of April 2017. The results from our sample cannot be generalized to the entire  population of referrals from DHS OIG to FEMA; however, they raise  questions as to whether there could be additional instances of misconduct  complaints that FEMA has not reviewed or addressed.
Why GAO Did This Study

This testimony summarizes the information contained in GAO's July 2017 report, entitled Federal Emergency Management Agency: Additional Actions Needed to Improve Handling of Employee Misconduct Allegations ( GAO-17-613 ).

What GAO Found

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has developed and documented misconduct policies and procedures for most employees, but not its entire workforce. Specifically, FEMA has developed policies and procedures regarding misconduct investigations that apply to all FEMA personnel and has also documented options to address misconduct and appeal rights for Title 5 (generally permanent employees) and Cadre of On-Call Response/Recovery Employees (temporary employees who support disaster related activities). However, FEMA has not documented misconduct policies and procedures for Surge Capacity Force members, who may augment FEMA's workforce in the event of a catastrophic disaster. Additionally, FEMA's Reservist (intermittent disaster employees) policies and procedures do not outline disciplinary actions or the appeals process currently in practice at the agency. As a result, supervisors and Reservist employees may not be aware of all aspects of the process. Clearly documented policies and procedures for all workforce categories could help to better prepare management to address misconduct and mitigate perceptions that misconduct is handled inconsistently.
FEMA records data on misconduct cases and their outcomes; however, aspects of this data limit their usefulness for identifying and addressing trends. GAO reviewed misconduct complaints recorded by FEMA's Office of the Chief Security Officer (OCSO) from January 2014 through September 30, 2016, and identified 595 complaints involving 799 alleged offenses, the most common of which were integrity and ethics violations. FEMA reported 546 disciplinary actions related to misconduct from calendar year 2014 through 2016. In addition to OCSO, two other FEMA offices involved in investigating and adjudicating misconduct also record data. However, limited standardization of data fields and entries within fields, limited use of unique case identifiers, and a lack of documented guidance on data entry across all three offices restricts the data's usefulness for identifying and addressing trends in employee misconduct. Improved quality control measures could help the agency use the data to better identify potential problem areas and opportunities for training.
FEMA shares misconduct case information internally and with the Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General (DHS OIG) on a regular basis; however, FEMA does not have reconciliation procedures in place to track DHS OIG referred cases to ensure that they are reviewed and addressed. GAO reviewed a random sample of 20 cases DHS OIG referred to FEMA in fiscal year 2016 and found that FEMA missed 6 of the 20 complaints during the referral process and had not reviewed them at the time of GAO's inquiry. As a result of GAO's review, FEMA took action to review the complaints and opened inquiries in 5 of the 6 cases (1 case was closed for lack of information). In 3 of these cases, officials determined that the complaints did not involve FEMA employees. The 2 remaining cases were open as of April 2017. While the results from this review are not generalizable to the entire population of referrals from DHS OIG to FEMA, they raise questions as to whether there could be additional instances of misconduct complaints that FEMA has not reviewed or addressed. Procedures to ensure reconciliation of referred cases across FEMA and DHS OIG records could help ensure that FEMA accounts for all complaints.