Inspector general finds Army Corps adequately reviewed $664.6 million in Helene debris invoices

By Garrett Sloane

WASHINGTON — The Army Corps of Engineers properly checked the invoices it paid for Hurricane Helene debris removal in western North Carolina, the Department of War’s inspector general has concluded. The audit reviewed a sample worth $664.6 million and made no recommendations.

The report, DOWIG-2027-004, was released Oct. 13. It examined how the Corps’ Wilmington District, with help from a Louisville District team, reviewed invoices and ran quality assurance on debris contracts after Helene struck the Southeast in late September 2024.

The money

According to the inspector general, the Federal Emergency Management Agency assigned $2.9 billion to the Corps to lead Helene debris operations. That included $2.6 billion, or 90%, for mission assignments in North Carolina. The Corps awarded $2.4 billion in contracts for debris management in the state.

The audit focused on 20 task orders worth $1.7 billion, issued under one of the Corps’ Advance Contracting Initiative contracts. Those contracts prequalify companies and set prenegotiated terms so work can start quickly after a disaster. From 199 paid invoices on those task orders, totaling $1,450.2 million, auditors chose 17 invoices worth $664.6 million.

Source: DOWIG-2027-004. The universe also included two invoices worth $0.73 million for activating the contractor’s pre-execution planning team; none was sampled. Auditors also reviewed 243 paper load tickets from 12 of the sampled invoices and 40 private property parcels from two of them.

The dollar amounts are obligations and payments under awarded task orders, not contract ceilings. The report does not name the contractor in its public summary, and the Inquisitor is not naming one here.

What auditors found

“USACE Wilmington District officials generally managed invoice reviews and QA processes adequately,” the report said. According to the report, officials:

• verified that expenses met contract requirements and matched debris load data before payments;
• conducted adequate quality assurance reviews of debris load checks, removal activities, soil-hauling costs and start-up and shut-down costs; and
• validated debris data against recorded information using database managers.

As a result, the inspector general said, the Corps had “reasonable assurance that the Government received contracted services, paid invoices appropriately, and obtained accurate FEMA reimbursements.”

At mission closeout, the Corps reported removing about 2.1 million cubic yards of right-of-way debris and 6.6 million cubic yards of waterway debris, and completing private property debris removal on more than 8,200 parcels.

An earlier GAO review

The inspector general also cited a June 9, 2026, Government Accountability Office report, GAO-26-108121, titled “Disaster Contracting: Actions Needed to Encourage Advance Contract Use and Improve Information Sharing and Oversight.” According to the inspector general’s summary of that report, Corps officials worked with the contractor to remove subcontractors that were collecting ineligible debris, and the Corps did not pay for removing ineligible debris.

The audit found no improper payments in its sample and alleged no wrongdoing.

Why it matters

The audit’s sample covered about 46% of the dollars in the invoice universe it reviewed, and its conclusions apply to that sample. The inspector general also set limits on its scope. It said it “did not review contractor performance or determine whether USACE officials effectively monitored the contractor’s work at debris collection sites.” North Carolina had the largest dollar assignment of the six states in FEMA’s Helene mission to the Corps, according to the report.

Request for comment

The Washington Inquisitor sought comment from Pentagon press operations (for the Army Corps of Engineers), GAO, North Carolina Emergency Management, the Governor’s Recovery Office for Western North Carolina and Gov. Josh Stein’s press office. The Corps’ Wilmington District public affairs office lists an email address on a domain that does not accept mail, so it could not be reached by email for this story. This story will be updated with any responses.

Featured image: Flooding in western North Carolina after Hurricane Helene, Oct. 2, 2024. NASA Earth Observatory image by Michala Garrison and Lauren Dauphin, using Landsat data from the U.S. Geological Survey and modified Copernicus Sentinel data, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.