Finance/Administration
Section
The
Finance/Administration section is usually initiated in incident management
activities when there’s need for incident-specific finance and administrative
support services. The section is crucial since it monitors incident related
costs and provides procurement, time recording, accounting, and cost analysis
at the time of need. The ability to respond and recover from incidents will be
impaired if reimbursement and funding is limited. Incidences responses whether
small or large (involving humongous event finances) ought to be recorded
accordingly, and that task lies in this section of NIMS. This section is also
involved with reimbursement concerns as well as cost summaries and contracts
for supplies and services at all levels of government. Although there’s always
a cost involved in all large incidents, not every agency needs this section
under the ICS (Walsh
et al., 2012).
The benefits of the
Finance/Administration section in ICS cannot be overlooked. It helps the
incident commander determine incident needs such as additional funding before
the operation is adversely affected. It also helps track and report actual cost
totals or current funds available as well as determine potential funds. The
Section Chief is tasked with monitoring cost expenditures to ensure rules are
followed accordingly. They’re also required to track and report to Incident
Command the accumulating costs as the incident advances as well as monitor multiple
sources of funds. The Section Chief is also responsible for coordinating with
the planning and logistics departments to conduct a reconciliation of financial
documents with operational records (Walsh et al., 2012).
The basic Financial
Administration organization structure involves the following;
• The comprehensive claims unit – Concerned
with financial matters arising from fatalities, injuries, and property damages
at the incident
• Procurement unit – responsible for buying
goods and services
• Cost unit – responsible for analyzing cost
data, suggesting cost-saving strategies, making estimates, and tracking costs
• Time unit – responsible for recording time
for hired equipment and incident personnel
For a
financial-administration section to remain firm, it should at least have
preestablished contracts and agreements as well as procedural processes with
local contractors and suppliers on the required supplies and equipment required
during a disaster (Walsh
et al., 2012).
References
Walsh, D.,
Christen, H., Callsen, C., Miller, G., Maniscalco, P., Lord, G., & Dolan,
N. (2012). National incident management system (2nd ed.). Sudbury, MA:
Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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