When Trish Glover of the Wilmington District’s Internal Review Office deployed to the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) during hurricane recovery after Hurricanes Irma and Maria she faced a few challenges common to others who deployed. She was working in a location that she had never been to before with people that she had never worked with before.
“Driving on the left hand side of the road was a bit scary and to top that off some of the roads were not much wider than what we would normally call an unpaved bike trail that wound around a mountain with no guard rails to keep you from driving off the side of a mountain,” she said.
Despite the unfamiliarity’s she had a vital role providing audit support and advisory services to assist the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers emergency response mission with command and control issues and in strengthening internal controls. Glover said Internal Review services focus on:
· Maximizing effectiveness of resources expended during USACE’s response and recovery
· Identifying internal controls in place and verifying whether they are operating as intended
· Working with management to make processes more efficient and effective
· Reduce the opportunity for fraud, waste and abuse
Glover said that the work she did during the USVI mission was very rewarding. However, she said that her biggest challenge she had in her job was making some people understand that she was a team player to provide audit support to USACE.
“This was a bit more challenging in the USVI mission because I had never worked with the majority of the people that were working the mission, so they had their own ideas of what Internal Review was there to do,” she recalled. “Most of the people working the USVI mission came from other districts. Therefore, I had never worked with them before and I didn't really have time to build relationships with everyone like I would working back at the District in Wilmington. In my job I like to establish a positive rapport with people.”
Glover’s time on the ground during the hurricane recovery mission was well spent. She covered a lot of territory, and diligently used her skills and expertise for the overall mission.
“I tell people all the time that I know I was born to be an auditor. I can't imagine doing anything else. I have the opportunity to help people and help reduce risk all at the same time.”