Finding Text
Finding 2024-002: Reportable Finding Considered a Significant Deficiency – Procurement Compliance
Program Name: STEM Education and NSF Technology, Innovation, and Partnerships Assistance Listing #: 47.076 and 47.084 Program Year: 2024
Federal Awarding Agency: National Science Foundation
Compliance Requirement: Procurements
Criteria: In accordance with 2 CFR 200.320(c), noncompetitive procurement may only be used under limited circumstances such as: the procurement does not exceed the micro-purchase threshold, the item is only available from a single source, an emergency or public exigency prevents a delay, the federal agency or pass-through entity provides prior written approval for noncompetitive procurement or after solicitation of multiple sources, competition is deemed inadequate. Unless one of these situations applies, the Organization is required to provide full and open competition in line with their established procurement policies.
Condition: During our testing, we noted the procurement policies and standards were not followed for both of the two procurements selected for testing.
Cause: The procurement policies were not followed due to the Organization believing they had met the criteria for noncompetitive procurement. For one selection, the Organization included the vendor in their original proposal and budget, believing this constituted prior approval. However, the regulation requires a specific written request and written approval from the federal agency, which was not obtained. For the other, the Organization believed the procurement was under the micro-purchase threshold, however the contract totaled $24,300. Although individual charges were allocated to separate grants and coded as amounts under the $10,000 micro-purchase threshold, the full contract amount exceeded that threshold and under 2 CFR 200.320, procurements must be considered in aggregate.
Effect: The Organization did not obtain price quotations or bids for purchases from two vendors exceeding the micro-purchase threshold as required by 2 CFR 200.320.
Questioned Costs: None.
Repeat finding: This is not a repeat finding.
Recommendation: We recommend that the Organization revisit its procurement policy to include these clarifications and ensure all staff involved in the acquisition of property or services charged to federal grants are aware of and re-trained on the relevant procurement requirements.
Views of Responsible Officials and Planned Corrective Action (unaudited): See Corrective Action Plan.