Finding 2022-010 Procurement and Suspension and Debarment – Noncompliance and
Significant Deficiency in Internal Control Over Compliance
Agency/Pass-through
Grantor
Department of Transportation passed through the State of Alaska Department
of Transportation and Public Facilities, Department of the Treasury,
Department of Health and Human Services passed through the State of Alaska
Department of Health and Social Services
ALN and Program
Name
20.205 – Highway Planning and Construction Cluster
20.500 & 20.507 & 20.526 - Federal Transit Cluster – COVID-19
21.027 - Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds – COVID-19
93.323 – COVID-19-Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious
Diseases (ELC)
Award # 20.205 – CFHY00018; CFHW00616; AMATS 2023; CFHWY00777; AMATS TSMO;
AMATS 2018; CFHWY00953; CFHWY00387; AK-26-0003-01;
CFHWY00529; CFHWY00097; CFHWY00604; CFHWY00555; CFHWY00710;
CFHWY00825; CFHWY00521; 2020 AMATS OPER AGRMT; HPRL-HPRM-
0001(407)59764; 0001521
20.500 & 20.507 & 20.526 – AK-95-X019-00; AK-95-X015-00; AK-03-0067-01;
AK-55-0004-01; AK-95-X007-04; AK-90-X070-01; AK-90-X076-02; AK-2018-005-
00; AK-2019-010-00; AK-2020-004-02; AK-2020-012-00; AK-2021-016-01; AK-2020-018-00; AK-2020-009-01; AK-2020-030-00; AK-2021-025-00;
AK-2022-009-00
21.027 – 1505-0271
93.323 – C0621-570-BB Award Year 20.205 – 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2022, 2022, 2018, 2015, 2019, 2012,
2020, 2020, 2020, 2021, 2019
20.500 & 20.507 & 20.526 – 2015, 2015, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2018,
2019, 2020, 2020, 2021, 2020, 2020, 2020, 2021, 2022.
21.027 - 2022
93.323 – 3/15/2021-6/30/2022
Criteria or Specific
Requirement
The regulations in 2 CFR Part 180 prohibits contracts with certain parties that
are debarred, suspended, or otherwise excluded from or ineligible for
participation in Federal programs or activities. Non-federal entities must
verify that parties to covered transactions are not suspended or debarred or
otherwise excluded from participating in the transaction.
Condition Testing of 16 procurements and 15 sub-awards identified 27 exceptions where
evidence was not retained to support the required verification of whether a
contractor or subrecipient was a suspended or debarred party.
Cause Anchorage’s policies over procurement and issuance of sub-awards were not
designed appropriately to retain evidence of suspension and debarment
review for all contracts or sub-awards funded with federal awards.
Effect or Potential
Effect
Federal funds could be disbursed to suspended or debarred entities.
Questioned costs None
Context For the Highway Planning and Construction Cluster, we tested a sample of 6
procurements totaling to $2,191,006 from a population of 11 totaling to
$2,428,669, and identified 3 exceptions equal to $1,048,720. For the Federal
Transit Cluster, we tested a sample of 5 procurements totaling to $9,489,488
from a population of 35 procurements, and identified 4 exceptions equal to
$8,489,488. For the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, we
tested a sample of 3 procurements totaling to $5,184,400 from a population
of 5 procurements, as well as a sample of 10 sub-awards totaling to
$28,079,600 from a population of 37 totaling to $37,052,621, and identified
13 exceptions equal to $33,264,000. For Epidemiology and Laboratory
Capacity for Infectious Diseases, we tested all 2 procurements totaling to
$887,745 and 5 sub awards totaling to $5,086,923 within the respective
populations, and identified 7 exceptions. All samples tested were selected
using nonstatistical sampling methods and were not statistically valid
samples.
Identification as a
Repeat Finding Yes. This finding was reported as Finding 2021-003 in the prior audit. Recommendation A policy should be established and enforced to ensure that evidence of the
SAM Exclusions search is retained. Procurement staff should conduct a selfreview
of procurement files for contracts awarded in prior years if it is known
that the contract will be funded with a federal award to ensure the SAM
Exclusions search is performed prior to the expenditure of those funds and
included in the procurement file.
Views of
Responsible
Officials
Management concurs with the finding and will adhere to the corrective action
plan. Management plans to perform reviews of procurement contracts in
place.