Kansas City Auditor Makes Recommendations To Strengthen City’s Emergency Management Program

Press release from the City of Kansas City:

April 21, 2020

The City Auditor’s Office released an audit on whether the Office of Emergency Management (OEM) follows recommended emergency management program practices. OEM is responsible for emergency planning, preparedness, and coordinating the response and recovery operations for disasters and emergencies that impact Kansas City.

The audit concluded that the city has a number of recommended emergency management program practices in place including an emergency management office, emergency manager, and incident management system; a local emergency operations plan outlining how the city will respond in an emergency; a training program for program officials and city emergency management response personnel; and emergency exercises held to test skills, plans, and resources.

The audit also concluded that OEM does not have a number of recommended practices that could strengthen the city’s emergency management program. The program does not have a strategic plan which would help prioritize and direct efforts to build skills and processes, develop relationships, and acquire resources for mitigating risk. In addition, the program does not have an advisory committee to provide feedback and oversight of the program and OEM does not have a process to evaluate and update emergency administrative and fiscal procedures.

Although OEM staff completed required training, emergency response personnel in other city departments (excluding Fire and Police) we reviewed may not have the required incident management training and do not receive recommended refresher training. Although emergency exercises are held, OEM does not follow up with other city departments to ensure corrective actions identified during emergency exercises are addressed.

The audit includes recommendations to improve the city’s emergency management program and oversight. Management agreed with the recommendations.

View the Full Report or Highlights on our Recent Reports page.

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This press release was produced by the City of Kansas City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.