Among the key findings: General Services does not have complete and accurate contracting data, and it did not implement controls to avoid these shortcomings with its contracting data.
The previous contract and procurement database system used through 2015 had severe limitations—we found many key data entry errors, and more than a third of the contracts and amendments we reviewed were missing from the system, including one with eight amendments worth $163 million.Billions in no-bid contracts mismanaged, state auditor says, By Adam Ashton (Excerpts; read full report at the link)
Of the 27 approved noncompetitive requests we reviewed, nine lacked justification for bypassing the competitive bid process and 14 did not demonstrate that the vendor’s prices were reasonable.
Among the highlights of the report:
• General Services and Technology did not provide adequate oversight of the billions of dollars state agencies awarded through noncompetitive contracts from fiscal years 2011–12 through 2015–16.
vices did not ensure that a statewide contract database contained complete and accurate information about the State’s contracts for use by key decision makers.
• Although General Services transitioned to the new Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal) as its statewide contract database, it is unclear if FI$Cal will fully solve the State’s lack of comprehensive contracting data.
• Neither General Services nor Technology has established formal plans to regularly analyze the new FI$Cal data to identify instances of abuse or misuse of statewide noncompetitive procurements.
• General Services and Technology approved noncompetitive requests that lacked adequate justification for bypassing the competitive bid process, such as demonstrating that it conducted market research to substantiate that no competition existed.
• Nine of the 27 noncompetitive requests we reviewed could have been avoided if the agencies had engaged in sufficient planning.
• Although both General Services and Technology have enforcement mechanisms, they rarely employed them, allowing agencies to continue inappropriately using noncompetitive requests.
It didn’t take long for the cost of a technology contract in California’s unemployment office to increase twelvefold.
Two changes to the contract – added without bidding – swelled the deal to $8 million within a year. Then, the Employment Development Department submitted a request to add another $2 million worth of work to the arrangement without soliciting new bids from other companies.
That project is one of nine that State Auditor Elaine Howle highlighted in a new report released on Tuesday that urges California government to be more cautious in awarding high-value contracts without seeking competitive bids.
The report estimates that the state spent $44 billion on noncompetitive contracts worth $1 million or more between 2011 and 2016, a substantial sum that auditors said underscored the need for better management.
“The sheer magnitude of the value of the state’s noncompetitive contracts during this period emphasizes the importance of ensuring that the state provides adequate oversight of agencies’ contracting practices,” the report says.
State rules allow departments to award contracts without bidding in emergencies and under other special circumstances. But Howle’s auditors found that the state departments in charge of monitoring spending – the Department of General Services and the Department of Technology – have missed opportunities to challenge requests for noncompetitive contracts, failed to ensure that contract databases have accurate information and rarely disciplined other government agencies for misusing noncompetitive contracts.
The audits were based in part on a sampling of 27 noncompetitive contracts that state departments awarded over five years. Nine of them should have gone out to bid, auditors wrote.
Examples included:
▪ A $3 million contract extension that the California High-Speed Rail Authority presented just 17 days before its existing contract was scheduled to expire. High-Speed Rail did not describe why the vendor it chose had unique services that merited a noncompetitive contract.
▪ An $835 million noncompetitive contract amendment in 2013 for the company that manages Medi-Cal dental benefits. It was the seventh amendment to the original contract.
▪ A $75.5 million noncompetitive contract extension at the Department of Motor Vehicles on top of what was a $62.8 million for work on the state’s driver’s license production system.
▪ A fourth amendment to a Cal Fire aviation contract that was worth $27.8 million.
One $163 million contract that was missing from databases highlighted shortcomings in the state’s accounting system. It was the eighth change to a contract from the Department of Developmental Services, and no one entered it in the program the Department of General Services uses to follow spending.
State government is in the midst of a major overhaul of its accounting system with departments gradually adopting a new program called the Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal). When it’s in full use, the Department of General Services and the Department of Technology should be able to follow instantly any contract awarded by a state entity.
Until then, different state departments are using a hybrid system for accounting. Most use the system that FI$Cal is replacing; about a third of them use FI$Cal.
Howle’s office says it’s too early to tell whether FI$Cal will work as intended. “It is unclear if FI$Cal will fully solve the state’s lack of comprehensive contracting data,” auditors wrote.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article157239494.html#storylink=cpy
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