Finding Text
2023-001 – Uniform Guidance Procurement Standards
Criteria: One of the more significant provisions of the Uniform Guidance that affects the District is the procurement standards under 2 CFR sections 200.318 through 200.327. Under the procurement standards, the Trust is required to have a documented purchasing policy, which at a minimum incorporates the provisions of the Uniform Guidance.
Statement of Condition: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) revised regulations applicable to federally funded programs. The new regulations are contained in Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance). The Uniform Guidance replaced OMB Circulars A-133, A-87, and A-110 and incorporates new requirements for grant recipients. The Uniform Guidance includes not only protocols for program management and administration, but also updates compliance regulations for federal awards. Currently, the District does not have a formal written procurement policy that incorporates all provisions of the Uniform Guidance procurement standards.
Cause: The District has not adopted a procurement policy that covers all aspects required by the Uniform Guidance. However, during our testing of procurement over federal expenditures, we did not notate any violations of the Uniform Guidance procurement standards.
Effect: Items required by the Uniform Guidance procurement standards that are not currently addressed in the District’s procurement policy are as follows:
• Contracting with small and minority businesses, women’s business enterprises, and labor surplus area firms
• General procurement standards, including oversight of contractors, conflicts of interest, and avoidance of duplicative items
• Competition
• Bonding requirements
• Contract provisions
• Federal agency or pass-through entity review
• Subrecipient and contractor determinations
• Retention requirements for records
• Domestic preferences
• Procurement of recovered materials
Recommendation: We recommend that management review the applicable provisions of the Uniform Guidance procurement standards and update the District’s procurement policy appropriately. This would include adding any missing components to the District’s current procurement policy and updating definitions of types of procurement (i.e., micro-purchases, small purchases, and small acquisition threshold), to match the language used in the Uniform Guidance procurement standards.
Questioned Costs: None