Scoping, Costing, and Final Reviews

• FEMA conducts compliance reviews for quality assurance, insurance requirements, PA hazard mitigation eligibility and EHP compliance.
• FEMA obligates the federal share of the eligible cost to the recipient. Once obligated, the project is the official record of the approved scope of work.
• FEMA’s authority to fund small projects as a lump sum on an estimate does not require recipients to pay them the same way. Recipients spend and account for the award under their own laws and procedures.
• Strategic funds management: if a permanent work project is over $1 million and you will not need funds for more than 180 days after it is ready for obligation, FEMA obligates based on the project completion schedule.
• The recipient must notify you that funds are available and distribute them to you.

Your project completion schedule (needed for strategic funds management on permanent work projects over $1 million), and the recipient’s notice that funds are available.

• FEMA accepts an applicant estimate that meets all the criteria in the table. Include foreseeable contingency costs such as security and staging.
• FEMA evaluates applicant estimates for reasonableness under the reasonable cost criteria in Chapter 6.
• For permanent work sites less than 90 percent complete with total costs expected to meet the large project threshold, FEMA uses the Cost Estimating Format under the CEF Instructional Guide, which sets factor ranges. Only FEMA Headquarters can approve factors outside those ranges or additional factors.
• For capped projects (improved and alternate projects), FEMA includes only the CEF contingency factor “Applicant Reserve for Change Orders,” with no other factors or risk premiums.
• FEMA reduces the estimate for insurance: actual proceeds if known, otherwise anticipated proceeds under your policy.

A unit-cost estimate signed by a licensed professional engineer, licensed architect or certified professional cost estimator, with a certification that it was prepared to industry standards and corresponds directly to repairing the agreed damage; the current design or construction phase and known costs; actual costs for work already done; and your insurance policies and any proceeds.

• Emergency work: except for debris removal and emergency repairs, the detailed scope is often unknown in advance and lacks unit pricing. FEMA may fund it on an estimate if you provide enough information.
• Permanent work: funding is based on the estimated cost to restore the facility to its pre-disaster design and function, including eligible codes and standards.
• The estimate may include a reasonable amount of anticipated soft costs. The PAPPG lists engineering and design, EHP compliance, and work required by codes or standards you identify and FEMA verifies.
• It does not include costs only related to, or only triggered by, changes to the pre-disaster design or function.
• If FEMA writes the scope, it also writes the cost estimate.
• If engineering analysis is needed to determine the repair method, FEMA funds engineering and design services when you request them.

For emergency work: enough detail on planned activities, durations and resources for FEMA to accept an estimate. For permanent work: the agreed damage description, the method of repair, the codes and standards that apply, and any engineering analysis needed to choose the repair method.

• For projects with all work complete, FEMA works with you to verify programmatic, insurance and hazard mitigation information, confirm EHP grant conditions were met, confirm the work did not harm the community, and verify documentation.
• Large projects 100 percent complete are funded on actual costs. FEMA decides eligibility on the documentation you submit and denies unsupported costs.
• If actual cost documentation is not readily available but you have defined the completed scope, FEMA funds the completed work on a cost estimate.
• If more information is needed, FEMA issues a request for information with a deadline. If you don’t fully support eligibility, FEMA issues a determination memorandum, which you can appeal (see Chapter 2).
• Small projects may be funded on estimates with your certification instead of documentation. They are not later adjusted to actual costs, except in the situations listed in Chapter 12, but keep your records to support a net small project overrun appeal.

For large projects: actual cost documentation for everything claimed (invoices, payroll, equipment logs, contracts and proof of payment). If actual costs are not readily available, documentation that defines the completed scope well enough for an estimate. For small projects: your certification of costs, plus records kept on file in case you later claim a net small project overrun.

• Applies to Category A or B projects that meet or exceed the large project threshold.
• Submit the request within 60 days of the recovery scoping meeting, with enough information for FEMA to validate eligibility, broken down by monthly or bi-weekly operational periods.
• FEMA funds 50 percent of the federal share of the estimated cost and works to obligate within 90 days of the request.
• Obligation does not let the recipient advance funds without documentation. Advances are limited to the minimum amounts needed, timed to actual, immediate cash needs.
• If an increased federal cost share period applies, separate work in that period from work after it.
• Without enough cost information, FEMA may use average historical pricing. For contract work it may use the contract unit costs if reasonable, but still reviews procurement compliance before or at closeout.

• Work: the immediate threat, the work done or planned, locations, and for debris, estimated quantities by type. Break everything down by monthly or bi-weekly operational period.
• Costs: an itemized estimate with its basis (actual costs, historical or local unit costs, quotes or pre-qualified contracts) and insurance policies.
• Labor: regular and overtime hours with average rates for budgeted employees, unbudgeted employees, and mutual aid, National Guard or prison labor, plus the mutual aid agreements.
• Equipment and supplies: type, usage and rate for owned equipment; type and cost for purchased equipment; type and rate for rentals; type, quantity and cost for purchased and stock supplies.
• Contracts: requests for proposals, bids or contracts supporting the estimate, and debris monitoring information.
• Other: travel, meals and miscellaneous costs with number of people, purpose, duration and average rate.

• The minimum threshold applies to each project application, not each line item. The total includes hazard mitigation costs and accounts for insurance and other reductions.
• FEMA will not combine sites into one project just to reach the minimum, and does not process projects under it unless you intend to appeal scope or costs that would bring it up to the minimum.
• The minimum does not apply to donated resources or management costs, but these are only eligible when tied to an eligible project that meets it.
• A large project has costs equal to or above the large project threshold; a small project is below it.
• For large projects that are not capped, FEMA adjusts estimates to actual incurred costs. For small projects, it does not.
• FEMA decides large or small on the final approved eligible amount after adjustments, including insurance reductions.

FEMA publishes the minimum project threshold and the large project threshold for each federal fiscal year on its Per Capita Impact Indicator and Project Thresholds page. Use the amounts for the fiscal year your disaster was declared.

• The scope must completely describe the work needed to repair the damage or address the impacts, and correspond directly to the cause of damage.
• Repair descriptions must be specific to the damaged elements, in quantifiable terms (length, width, depth, capacity) and descriptive terms (brick, wood, asphalt, timber deck bridge).
• FEMA reviews the information you provide to develop or validate the scope and cost estimate, develop hazard mitigation proposals and check compliance, using the Appendix L checklist for cost estimates.
• For traditional tribal residences and ceremonial buildings (for example adobe, earth or wood), FEMA accepts the Tribal Nation’s certified damage assessment, scope of work and cost estimate.

For each site: the agreed damage description and dimensions, percent of work complete, who did or will do the work (force account, contract, mutual aid), the proposed or completed scope including hazard mitigation and the codes and standards that apply, and any technical studies, reports or assessments.