All agencies of the government are required to submit both their financial statement and records as mandate by The Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (reference). These financial statements and records are meant to summarize the expenditure of the government on its project and programs. One of these government agencies is the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The concentration of this paper is on the comparison between its 2015 and 2016 annual performance plan on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
The strategic plan for the year 2014-2018 included; the ability to be survivor-centric in mission and program delivery, FEMA becoming and expeditionary organization, the need to build posture and capabilities for catastrophic disasters, the ability to create awareness on disaster management by enabling disaster risk education nationally and the finally, the strengthening of FEMA’s organizational foundation (Fugate, 2014).
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The 2015 and 2016 annual performance report have a similarity in the sense that most projects are still under plans while some are ongoing. Despite the efforts and milestone made, some need more expansion an intensity such as the fight against terrorism (Roth, 2015). Additionally, the 2016 budget is higher compared to the 2015 budget with more grants kept in place such as the need for disaster and catastrophe management and education. For example, in the firefighting department (Roth, 2016).
The reasons for these differences, for example, is the fact that FEMA deals with vigorous processes which leaves the capacity of predicting its future expenses rigid. For risk and disaster management strategies to become successful, there is need to compare consecutive years’ reports hence a wide variation in both the performance plans and the performance reports. For example, in 2015 there was need to increase the rate of response to fire breakout by increasing both the education of dealing with a fire breakout and the increase of response from the relevant authorities. In 2016 however, there was need to increase the firefighting strategy as a whole by increasing the grant awarded to the fire department (volunteers, combinations and careers), unaffiliated Emergency Medical Service (EMS) organizations or any other volunteer firefighting interest based organization. There will also be an audit that would ensure if FEMA expends the grants appropriately (Roth, 2016).
Reference
Roth, J. (2015). DHS Annual Performance Plan (APP)
Roth, J. (2016). DHS Annual Performance Plan (APP)
Fugate, C. (2014). FEMA Strategic Plan 2014-2018.
