FEMA extends expedited closure of projects benefit for Puerto Rico

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.”