Overview

• What is the purpose of this site?
LaDirect was created by the Division of Administration to provide the public with easy access to information pertaining to the flow of Disaster Recovery Funding related to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita through Louisiana State Government.
• What are the major sources and uses of Katrina and Rita disaster recovery funds, and what does this site include?
Disaster Recovery funds are flowing into the state of LA from many sources. These include federal, private, and individual sources as well as state funds. The most significant amount of Disaster Funding flowing into state government originates with the Federal Government. The two largest contributors of Federal Disaster Funds are FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) and HUD (Department of Housing and Urban Development). Typically Federal Disaster Recovery funding is provided to state agencies via a grant program. State agencies in turn administer disaster recovery programs within the scope of the grants.
• Are the Funds transferred between state agencies or local governments included?

Yes, in most cases federal grant programs are structured with one federal agency as the grant provider and one state agency as the grant recipient. In many cases the state agency grant recipient will then transfer some portion of the funding to other state agencies to fund programs. This process is known as an Interagency Transfer and these funds are included in LaDirect.

Yes, in some cases the state grant recipient will transfer funds directly to local government recipients to fund disaster recovery projects. An example of this is the FEMA Public Assistance program. FEMA in coordination with the Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness (GOHSEP) funds individual projects at the state and local government level. This information is included in LaDirect in the Federal Infrastructure Assistance section.

• Are Federal Infrastructure project funds included?
Yes, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) through its Public Assistance program funds several categories of projects at the state and local government level. This program funds individual projects that fall within the general categories of debris removal, emergency protective measures, and rebuilding of public facilities such as buildings, roads, and bridges.
• Are there any other Federal Inflows?

Yes, many federal agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and Department of Labor (DOL) have funded some form of Disaster Recovery assistance program through state and local government.

Federal agencies have also provided several direct assistance programs such as the FEMA Individual Assistance program and the Gulf Opportunity Zone incentive program. Since these programs provide Disaster Recovery assistance directly to individuals or to private or commercial organizations, the funding does not flow through state government and will NOT be included in LaDirect.

• Is State funding included?
Any funding that originates from revenue collected at the state level and that has been explicitly appropriated to fund Disaster Assistance programs will be included in LaDirect.
• What about private and individual funding?
Private funding such as insurance reimbursements to individuals, relief efforts from charity organizations, private donations, or assistance provided by non-profit disaster assistance organizations will not be included in LaDirect.

Who reports and how often?

• Who reports and how often?
All state agencies that have Disaster Recovery funding or expenditures report. This information is displayed in the State Recovery Programs section. A list of these agencies is provided on the Home page of this site. The website began operating February 1, 2007. In an attempt to make the information available to the public as rapidly as possible, a phased implementation strategy was adopted. The initial rollout included the Louisiana Division of Administration, the Louisiana Recovery Authority, and information from the FEMA Public Assistance program. The Home page of this site contains a schedule with the date each participating agency is scheduled to be included as soon as it is known. Additionally, the Home page of the site also contains the date of last update by each agency. The information included on LaDirect will be updated on a monthly basis.
• How are the sources and uses of funds reported on LA Direct?
This site reports sources and uses of funds using the following structure hierarchy: Organization, Program, and Activity. The organization represents the entity in state government that is responsible for administering the Disaster Assistance program. The program represents the category of services being provided. The activity represents the methods of service delivery.
• What is an Organization?
An Organization is functional unit/section/office within an Agency or Department of State Government. For example Office of Community Development (OCD) is a unit in the Division of Administration.
• What is a Program?
A Program is a category of disaster recovery assistance within an Organization. For example, The Road Home Program is a category of assistance supported by the Office of Community Development. The Road Home program is intended to provide services related to Housing Assistance.
• What is an Activity?
An Activity is a further breakdown of a Program. It can be looked at as the methods utilized to support the program.

What is reported?

• What is included in Funding Sources?
Funding Sources display all monies allocated and available to state agencies for Disaster Recovery.
• What is included in Expenditures?
Expenditures are actual costs reported by the agencies as of the date of last report.
• What is included in Contracts?
The contract listing will provide descriptive information for each contract associated with a Disaster Assistance program. The listing contains a title and description of the contract, the name of the vendor providing the services, and the total value of the contract. It is important the note that the total value of the contract will not necessarily represent actual payments to date, but instead represents the maximum cost allowed under the contract terms when all services have been completed.
• What’s included in the Project Count? (PW)
Project count is the total number of approved FEMA Public Assistance projects for state and local governments.
• What’s included in the Fed Dollars?
Federal dollars includes all funds authorized by FEMA for Public Assistance projects.

How do I use this site?

• How do I use the ‘drill down’ feature of the site to get more detailed information?

The pie chart (and other graphics such as bar) charts requires a mouse click to activate the control the graphic in on, and a 2nd click in order to drill down through the data.

For example, the highest level for Funding Sources shows all Funding Sources for the entire state. Double Click on the Federal Funds slice of the pie in order to ‘drill down’ to the next level - Federal Funds broken out by Agency. A slice of the pie can then be selected again to drill down to the Organization level. Finally, double click on a slice to ‘drill down’ to the Program level.

To the right of the pie graphics is an inset to allow you to switch between pie, chart, or tabular display. The tabular display is particularly useful when pie slices are too small to be graphically represented.

Also to the right of the pie chart is an inset which allows you to switch between federal dollars only, state dollars only, or a combination of state and federal dollars. The default view is combined dollars.

Also note that for expenditures, there is a contract selection in the inset. This allows you to see the contracts for the current level you have drilled down to.

For both Funding and Expenditures there are tabs that start at Program level rather than start at Department/Agency level. This allows you to see Programmatic information without having to know the state’s organization structure.

• Notes
Please note that Interagency Transfers (IAT’s) can represent funding as it flows through multiple programs. While it is important to show these funding items at the program level, if these amounts were included in the total funding or expenditures at the state level, they would cause the numbers to be overstated. To address this issue, Interagency Agency Transfer Amounts have been excluded from the calculation of statewide totals.

Fiscal Summary

Schedule

While some agencies are already contributing data to LA Direct, others are slated to begin data entry in the near future.

Click on the listings below to view the agencies that are currently reporting (with last updated date), and those that are joining soon:

• Agencies currently in the LA Direct system
• Agencies pending in the LA Direct system