BURN RATES

1. BURN RATES ICS FSC Workgroup

2. WHAT ARE BURN RATES? • Burn Rates are a measure for how fast EPA is using up its MA or Oil Spill funding. (i.e. Burn rates measure dollars used per day and can then be used to calculate days of funding remaining.) • Important for monitoring status/usage of Mission Assignments (MA) and Oil Pollution Act (OPA) funds • Ultimately used for Sitrep and IAP (Discussed later)

3. Standard Disclaimer • I vanpool with an attorney and he has advised me to tell you that “this webinar presents one method to calculate burn rates, this is not the only methodology for calculating burn rates, burn rates can cause headaches, upset stomachs and sleeplessness. Continued use of burn rates can result in serious medical consequences. Frequent use of burn rates could result in fully understanding days of funding remaining and the corresponding implications.”

4. What are Burn Rates Calculated For? • The incident • MAs • Contract • Work Assignment by county, parish, activity (i.e. white goods collection) • Payroll • Travel • Etc.

5. How do we report Burn Rates?

6. HOW ARE BURN RATES USED? • important for monitoring status/usage of Mission Assignments (MA) and Oil Pollution Act (OPA) funding. • allows you to estimate funding days remaining so that you or Incident Command can compare remaining work and remaining funding. • allow lead time to obtain additional funding or MA completion time if necessary.

7. What Will We Cover? • How to obtain burn rates (yes, sometimes they are given to you) • Where to obtain source data for burn rate calculations • How to calculate burn rates • How to present burn rate information to command • Why burn rates can be misleading if not given context

8. Mission Assignment • Must be Signed • Must have a start date • Must have an end date • Read Language Carefully to stay within Scope at all times • Make sure the IC team all agree on the scope • We can contact FEMA via JFO to clarify scope if necessary • If we try to bill FEMA for activities outside the period or outside our scope we will likely be denied reimbursement

9. Let’s start off simple! • We are three days into an incident we have four MAs that total $30,000,000 • We have spent $3,000,000 • Calculating the incident burn rate is simple: $3,000,000 spent/3 days = $1,000,000 spent per day Wahoo the incident burn rate is done! Time to call it a day and relax with a cool beverage. Not so fast, what about that context thing we mentioned earlier?

10. Let’s add some complexity! • MA 1 $100,000 3 Days Rapid Needs Assessment • MA 2 $900,000 6 days Leaking Tank Containment • MA 3 $2,000,000 30 days White Goods Collection • MA 4 $27,000,000 90 days Hazmat Cleanup, T & D Oops more data leads to: More questions…. MA 1 $100,000 spent, mission 100% completed MA 2 $800,000 spent, mission 50% completed MA 3 $1,000,000 spent, mission 50% completed MA 4 $1,100,000 spent, mission 2% completed

11. OK, so where are we and what do we tell the IC? MA 1 Mission 100% completed, on time. MA 2 Mission 50% completed, 89% funding expended and 3 days remaining MA 3 Mission 50% completed, 50% funding expended and 27 days remaining MA 4 Mission 2% completed, 4% funding expended and 87 days remaining Don’t jump to conclusions, it helps to know the context. This is why FSCs attend meetings. We may know: MA 2 had very expensive mobilization costs but very inexpensive daily costs! Transportation & Disposal expenses for MA 3 were not included! Could T & D for MA 3 be in the scope of MA 4?

12. Burn Rate Excel Worksheet with Formulas

13. Where do we get the information? Various sources like: • Contractors (field accountant or contractor PO) • Other Federal Agencies – IAs (CG PO) • CDW Reports • ICS 213 – Resource Requests • Our own estimates and accruals for Payroll & Travel

14. Example of Contractor Reported Burn Rate For Contractor Tab in Excel

15. Example of IA – Cost Report

16. CDW or FDW

17. Compass Reimbursable Agreement Detail Inquiry

18. Compass Reimbursable Agreement Detail Inquiry This helps to verify your numbers in the Payroll and Travel Tab

19. ICS 213 RR – Resource Request Form • As FSCs we all know what ICS 213s look like and generally get to see several each day during large events. • We need to pay attention, especially when new or unexpected significant requests come through. Again, a lot of valuable information comes from the meetings we (FSCs) attend. I personally make it a habit to talk with OPS after meetings to clarify any significant $ issues discussed during the meeting.

20. Agency Admin. Fee and Indirect Rates • For some incidents EPA HQ requires that a certain % of each MA, IA or PFRA is reserved for HQ expenses. As FSCs it is important for us to account for this immediately upon receipt of MA. • EPA now develops annual IA indirect rates for each Region and AAship, again these need to be accounted for up front. • Please see addendum for examples of CFC email and CDW report showing indirect and Admin. Fees.

21. Indirect Cost Rates(EPA Overhead Rate to perform IA work) • HQ OCFO Policy sends out annual indirect cost rate percentages per region. Normally, the Superfund Removal Managers have this rate information. • Note: Oil Spills are different rates not included in this chart. • Indirect Costs should be Taken OUT of the MA or FPN Funding immediately so we do not overspend

22. Payroll Calculations Payroll & Travel Tab in Excel Payroll & Travel Tab in Excel

23. Payroll Tracking IAs Contractors IAs Contractors

24. Travel Calculations Payroll & Travel Tab in Excel

25. Burn Rate Excel Worksheet with Formulas

26. ICS Meeting Refresher Morning Operations Meeting (OPS) – All Hands Command and General Staff (C&G) – C & G Staff Tactics Meeting(observe don’t participate) – Tech Staff Finance Staff Meeting - (Limited to Section and Host Region) Planning (Support the plan for the next op period or not) - C & G Staff

27. Chart Example

28. Tips & Tricks • Often during an incident funding is tight (end of FY, start or end of incident). You can get into a tricky situation and cause more work for yourself and others if you allow fully funding all Purchase Orders (POs) for work assignments on Contracts & IA’s • It is wise to spread the money out by partially funding all needs and holding a reserve for unexpected requests. • You may get pressure from contractors and EPA Project Officers to fully obligate funds for their needs

29. Burned out on Burn Rates? Any Questions? Contact the Finance Section Chief Training Team: John Anderson, Region 7, (913)551-7470, Anderson.JohnC@epa.gov John Phillips, Region 7, (913)551-7014, Phillips.John@epa.gov Cindy Brown, Region 6, (214)665-7480, Brown.Cynthia@epa.gov Barbara Lee, Region 9, (415)972-3195, Lee.Barbara@epa.gov CDW link: http://ocfosystem1.epa.gov/neis/adw.welcome