2023-002 The City lacked adequate internal controls for ensuring compliance with federal requirements for procurement and suspension and debarment.
Assistance Listing Number and Title: 21.027, COVID-19 – Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds
Federal Grantor Name: U.S. Department of Treasury
Federal Award/Contract Number: WA0110
Pass-through Entity Name: N/A
Pass-through Award/Contract Number:
N/A
Known Questioned Cost Amount: $0
Prior Year Audit Finding: 2022-002
Background
The purpose of the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) is to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic’s negative effects on public health and the economy, provide premium pay to essential workers during the pandemic, provide government services to the extent COVID-19 caused a reduction in revenues collected and make necessary investments in water, sewer or broadband infrastructure.
In 2023, the City spent $2,561,053 in program funds to respond to negative economic impacts caused by the pandemic, including providing public health services and replacing lost revenue for government services.
Federal regulations require recipients to establish and maintain internal controls that ensure compliance with program requirements. These controls include understanding program requirements and monitoring the effectiveness of established controls.
Procurement
Federal procurement standards require governments to conduct procurement transactions for services required under a federal award in a manner that ensures full and open competition. Non-competitive procurement is allowed only in limited circumstances when a competitive process is not feasible, and the government must adequately document the rational for limiting competition to support the decision.
When using federal funds to purchase services, governments must apply the most restrictive of federal requirements, state laws or local policies by obtaining quotes or following a competitive procurement process, depending on the estimated purchase cost.
Suspension and Debarment
Federal regulations prohibit recipients from contracting with, purchasing from or making subawards to parties suspended or debarred from doing business with the federal government. Whenever the City enters into contracts or purchases goods or services that it expects to equal or exceed $25,000, paid all or in part with federal funds, it must verify the contractors are not suspended, debarred or otherwise excluded from participating in federal programs. The City may verify this by obtaining a written certification from the contractor, adding a clause or condition into the contract that states the contractor is not suspended or debarred, or checking for exclusion records in the U.S. General Services Administration’s System for Award Management at SAM.gov. The City must verify this before entering into the contract, and it must maintain documentation demonstrating compliance with this federal requirement.
Description of Condition
Procurement
The City entered into two separate contracts with one vendor to provide behavioral health services. In 2023, it paid this vendor a total of $587,438 for these services.
The City’s internal controls were ineffective for ensuring it complied with federal procurement requirements. Specifically, the City did not follow its policy for procuring and awarding service contracts more than $200,000 with an advertised request for competitive bids.
Suspension and Debarment
Our audit found the City did not have adequate controls in place to verify 10 contractors it paid more than $25,000 in federal funds were not suspended or debarred from participating in federal programs.
We consider these deficiencies in internal controls to be material weaknesses that led to material noncompliance.
Cause of Condition
The City experienced employee turnover in positions responsible for administering these federal awards. City employees therefore lacked adequate experience and training necessary to demonstrate compliance with federal procurement and suspension and debarment requirements.
Effect of Condition
Procurement
Without advertising a request for competitive bids as required, the City cannot ensure it allowed for full and open competition, received the best price for the behavioral health services and complied with applicable federal regulations or its own policy.
Suspension and Debarment
The City did not obtain written certifications, insert clauses into contracts or check SAM.gov to verify the 10 contractors were not suspended or debarred before entering into the contracts.
Without this verification, the City increases its risk of providing federal funds to contractors that are excluded from participating in federal programs. Any payments the City made to an ineligible party would be unallowable and the federal grantor could potentially recover them.
We verified through SAM.gov that these contractors were not suspended or debarred. Therefore, we are not questioning costs.
Recommendation
We recommend the City strengthen its internal controls to ensure compliance with federal requirements. Specifically, we recommend the City:
• Provide adequate training to staff responsible for administering federal programs
• Ensure it procures goods and services charged to federal programs in accordance with federal regulations and City policy
• Ensure contractors paid $25,000 or more, all or in part with federal funds, are not suspended or debarred before entering into contracts with them or charging their costs to the program
City’s Response
The City thanks the State Auditor’s Office for the opportunity to respond to the audit finding regarding the non-compliance with federal requirements for procurement and suspension and debarment requirements of Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) expenditures.
Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the City has focused on providing assistance to our residents as quickly as possible to mitigate the associated health, social, and economic impacts. Emergency declarations by the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services and the governor of Washington in 2020 only served to reinforce the urgent need to quickly provide assistance to the residents of Bothell.
The City’s decentralized model for procurement and grant management has created challenges to meeting federal compliance requirements. The City is fully committed to safeguarding public funds while meeting the needs of residents. A fulltime analyst has already been hired to oversee SLFRF funds and assist staff with meeting compliance requirements. Additional training is being created to educate City staff on federal compliance requirements. The City is also reviewing options to add staff to assist the City with procurement needs.
The City appreciates the efforts of the State Auditor’s Office in providing a thorough and detailed explanation of the appropriate compliance requirements. The City acknowledges it did not follow procurement policy in awarding two contracts for behavioral health services and did not retain sufficient documentation to show suspension and debarment compliance requirements were met.
The City takes its responsibility to safeguard public funds seriously, and is committed to improving internal controls over grant management that affect the City’s ability to comply with federal regulations.
Auditor’s Remarks
We thank the City for its cooperation and assistance throughout the audit and acknowledge its commitment to resolve this finding. We will review the status of the City’s corrective action during our next audit.
Applicable Laws and Regulations
Title 2 U.S. Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 200, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (Uniform Guidance), section 516, Audit findings, establishes reporting requirements for audit findings.
Title 2 CFR Part 200, Uniform Guidance, section 303, Internal controls, describes the requirements for auditees to maintain internal controls over federal programs and comply with federal program requirements.
The American Institute of Certified Public Accountants defines significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in its Codification of Statements on Auditing Standards, section 935, Compliance Audits, paragraph 11.
Title 2 CFR Part 180, OMB Guidelines to Agencies on Governmentwide Debarment and Suspension (Nonprocurement), establishes non-procurement debarment and suspension regulations, implementing Executive Orders 12549 and 12689.
City of Bothell, Procurement Policy, section 4.0, Competition requirements, describes the procurement actions to be taken for purchases of supplies, equipment, non-professional services, and computer or telecommunications software, equipment, and services.