Previous Story
$3M funds new USVI Office of Disaster Recovery
WASHINGTON—Three million dollars in supplemental funding for the U.S. Virgin Islands has been approved to create and fund an Office of Disaster Recovery in support of a priority request from the territory.
“The Virgin Islands government needs emergency financial management assistance related to the consequences of the two Category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, that hit the territory in 2017,” said Doug Domenech, U.S. Department of the Interior Assistant Secretary for Insular and International Affairs. “Secretary Ryan Zinke and I are pleased that the U.S. Congress has provided this assistance to help ensure that funding provided to address hurricane impacts is spent correctly and efficiently for the benefit of those who are impacted.”
The Virgin Islands Office of Disaster Recovery in the USVI Department of Finance will provide critical financial management coordination across each agency and organization receiving disaster recovery funds. The territory will be receiving several billions of dollars in disaster assistance funding as a result of impacts and damage caused in 2017. The Office of Disaster Recovery will monitor expenditures of all federal disaster assistance programs, and transmit collected data through an electronic system and publication on a website to be updated monthly for transparency and awareness. The budget includes costs for personnel, contractors, equipment, software, website maintenance, and overhead costs for approximately the next two years. The USVI government and the Federal Emergency Management Agency will provide a combined in-kind match of $818,289. (DOI)
