COR3 simplifies reimbursement requests for reconstruction work
By John McPhaul
jpmcphaul@gmail.com
Central Office of Recovery, Reconstruction and Resilience (COR3) Executive Director Manuel Laboy Rivera announced on Wednesday the implementation of the “Optimization of the Request for Reimbursement” in the Puerto Rico Disaster Recovery System’s (PR DRS) Reimbursement Solution to handle payment requests.
“Committed to establishing more efficient processes, the steps that the officials who lead the reconstruction work must follow to present the necessary documents and invoices to receive their reimbursement were modified,” Laboy Rivera said in a written statement. “Let us remember that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) establishes that, starting in 2014, the process for sub-recipients to receive funds is through the reimbursement method. For that, they first have to pay for the services they receive and then submit invoices and evidence of the work done.”
He noted that COR3 has so far disbursed about $262 million for work related to the development of permanent works. As reconstruction projects progress, requests for reimbursement will increase and, in turn, the funds will be returned to the respective government, municipal or non-profit entities, Laboy Rivera said.
“Aware of the need to make changes in favor of subrecipients, but guaranteeing compliance with federal regulations, during the past year we made various changes in our processes,” he said. “For this reason, Chapter 7 was revised, which speeds up the Funds Review procedures for Reimbursement Requests; we presented the Funds Flow Calculator tool, we conducted numerous orientations and now, we implemented the Optimization of the Reimbursement Request.”
A virtual workshop will be held today to guide subrecipients on the use and benefits of Reimbursement Request Optimization. Participants can register by sending an email to helpdesk@recovery.pr or by calling 1-800-685-6022.