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EMA Strength
Procurement activities are highly time sensitive, and require careful data entry and tracking to meet critical milestones. EMA supports not only procurement activities, but also the full range of related financial activities, such as vendor invoice validation and payment, obligation tracking, and budget formulation. EMA has a unique understanding of the procurement process, due to our extensive experience with both award recipients and federal funding agencies. Our staff create initial procurement documents, obtain and review vendor quotes/proposals, distribute award documents, and maintain procurement file/record systems. We also track obligations and review vendor invoices against those obligations. Our senior staff have held training on proposal negotiations with vendors and have negotiated cost proposals on behalf of the federal government. As a result, we have a thorough understanding of the full range of the procurement life cycle.
"EMA was contracted to carry out a project with a very crucial deadline for our Department. Because of their organization and dedication, we were able to complete a record number of grant budget negotiations in a very short period of time."
--- Program Officer, HUD
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Functional Capabilities
- Purchasing
- Vendor Quote/Proposal Analysis
- Procurement Request Preparation
- Funds/Obligation Tracking
- Compliance Reviews
- Contract Closeouts
- Audit Resolution/Guidance
- Contract Management Systems
- Indirect Cost Rate Proposals/Guidance
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Relevant Experience
For more than 16 consecutive years, EMA supported procurement and financial support for a federal fee-for-service organization within the U.S. Department of Transportation. EMA recovered more than $3M in additional revenue, streamlined operations, and increased accuracy in all areas of procurement and financial reporting. We have developed information systems to track and report critical milestones and data. These systems enable us to reduce the time to process procurements, vendor invoices, and customer billing statements while increasing the accuracy, detail, and timeliness of related financial reports.
We monitor vendor invoices and other expenses against obligations, by cost category, to prevent cost overruns and to ensure compliance with contract funding thresholds. Our procurement specialists prepare procurement documents and submit to authorizing officials for approvals through an automated system, PRISM. After award, we file and distribute award documents and enter award information into the DOT's Contract Information System (CIS). All procurement and financial activities carried out by EMA staff are tracked against performance targets in automated systems developed by EMA IT specialists. We are migrating individual billing, procurement, vendor invoice analysis, and budget modules into an integrated financial management system using Visual Basic as a client front-end and Oracle as the back-end data repository.
EMA has also been recognized for its excellence in procurement negotiations and administration of grants and contracts. We were selected by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development to negotiate budgets with more than 150 grantees for grant awards totaling $40 million. EMA has successfully conducted audit resolution for private organizations to justify questioned and unsupported costs in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and applicable Office of Management and Budget (OMB) circulars.
EMA senior staff have managed multi-agency federal grant programs with the departments of Education, Labor, Defense, and Health and Human Services. Through this work, we have developed nationally known expertise on the subject of indirect cost determination. We serve on a national task force for quality reporting, a collaboration between the National Grants Management Association and the Greater Washington Society of CPAs, to establish financial reporting standards for federal award recipients.
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