Finding Text
Federal Agency: U.S. Department of Energy, Bonneville Power Administration Federal Program Name: Columbia Basin Pit Tag Assistance Listing Number: 81.999 Federal Award Identification Number and Year: 00078040 REL 35 ? 2021-2022 Award Period: July 1, 2021 through June 30, 2022 Type of Finding: ? Significant Deficiency in Internal Control over Compliance, Other Matters Criteria or specific requirement: 2 CFR Part 200 Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Award requires compliance with the provisions of procurement. Specifically, per ?200.320(c), noncompetitive procurements can only be used if one of five specific circumstances are met. Documentation for that assessment must be kept. The Commission should have internal controls designed to ensure compliance with those provisions. Condition: During our testing, we noted the Commission did not have adequate internal controls designed to ensure noncompetitive procurements were appropriately identified as sole source procurements. Questioned costs: $134,084 Context: In a statistically valid sample, two of seven procurement selections tested, representing 50% of the noncompetitive procurements tested, did not have sufficient documentation to appropriately determine that the procurements qualified as sole source acquisitions. Upon further review of the procurements in question, they did appear to merit the use of sole source procurement, however incomplete documentation was kept to identify the procurements as such. Cause: The selections in questions were for renewals of software agreements. Sole source justification may have been completed on the initial contracts and purchases, however these documents were either not retained or were inaccessible during the audit. Effect: Noncompliance could lead the Commission to enter into contracts with vendors that are not the most suitable for the goods and/or services being procured. Repeat Finding: No Recommendation: We recommend the Commission design controls to ensure adequate documentation is maintained to support sole source justifications. Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.