Managements response: Beginning in early 2023, the Organization implemented a new vetting monitoring system and procedure. All contractors and employees submitted for hire by the Program Managers, or the Executive Director, are referred via a Job Proposal automated task document approval to the Man...
Managements response: Beginning in early 2023, the Organization implemented a new vetting monitoring system and procedure. All contractors and employees submitted for hire by the Program Managers, or the Executive Director, are referred via a Job Proposal automated task document approval to the Managing Director. The Managing Director is the agreed-upon point of contact with the federal agency to determine if the proposed new hire needs to be vetted based on the criteria set by the federal agency. If the Managing Director deems necessary that the hire needs to be vetted, a vetting task and confirmation of receipt are sent by the system to the Operations Associate. The Operations Associate oversees maintaining the RAM system and submitting new vetting requests. Once the vetting has been approved or declined, the Operations Associate enters the information into U4I’s relational database, and only at this point can the hiring process move forward, provided RAM approves the vetting. The new system has automated alarm notifications and emails monthly reports based on the “date of last vetting,” calculating the “date of new vetting” automatically for a list of over 85 employees and contractors. Remedy - We have introduced a backup Vetting POC in our vetting process moving forward to prevent this type of occurrence during transitions. If the Managing Director is unavailable, and a confirmation of the vetting task is not received, the Co-Director acting as interim Vetting POC will be asked to assume the role and evaluate the hires and vetting. The FIN/OPS team overseeing the new vetting procedure and added control steps, will make sure that all vendors, contractors and employees, without exclusions and regardless of any subjective levels of mutual trust and regardless the length of existing relationships, are run through the Job Proposal and Vetting Procedure and that the contractual process will be stopped unless there is a RAM record to consider the hire.