COR3 activates changes in internal policies to expedite disbursements
All changes to the Central Office of Recovery, Reconstruction and Resiliency’s (COR3) Chapter 7 internal policies on disbursement processes and cash handling are already in force to streamline procedures related to Requests for Reimbursements (RFR) and Requests for Advances (RFA) for reconstruction projects required under funds allocated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the local agency’s Executive Director Manuel A. Laboy announced.
“Now RFR requests will be processed within 60 days, when before it took an average of 240 days,” he said.
“Sub-recipients may also request more than one refund at a time. Furthermore, we will internally evaluate RFAs for disbursements within a 21-day period. Before this process took months,” he added.
Some 145 sub-recipients split among municipalities, government agencies and private nonprofit organizations were informed by COR3 personnel on the changes in the Chapter 7 procedures.
“This revision of the reimbursement policies is in addition to other initiatives that the government has implemented, such as the availability of the $750 million Reconstruction Fund, established to provide financing so the sub-recipients can execute recovery projects under the categories of permanent works without further delay,” he said.
So far, six municipalities have submitted their requests through the Puerto Rico Disaster Recovery Solution, Laboy said.
