Finding 529765 (2024-001)

Material Weakness

Requirement

Questioned Costs

Year

2024

Accepted

2025-03-24

Audit: 347722

Organization: County of Colusa (CA)

Auditor: Cliftonlarsonallen LLP

AI Summary

Core Issue: The County failed to check if three vendors were suspended or debarred before contracting, violating federal requirements.
Impacted Requirements: Non-federal entities must verify vendor eligibility to prevent contracting with excluded parties.
Recommended Follow-Up: Implement standard procedures for suspension and debarment checks and provide training to ensure compliance.

Finding Text

Criteria: Non-federal entities are prohibited from contracting with or making subawards under covered transactions to parties that are suspended or debarred. Before entering into a covered transaction the entity must verify that the contractor is not suspended, debarred, or otherwise excluded from participating in the transaction. Condition: During the course of the audit, it was observed that suspension and debarment checks were not conducted for three vendors. This oversight was identified through a comprehensive review of the vendor management process and related documentation. Questioned Costs: None noted. Context: CLA found the following: Suspension and debarment procedures were not perfomed for three out of five vendors prior to entering into the transaction. Cause: The County does not have standard procedures in place for ensuring that vendors are not suspended or debarred. Effect: Without checking debarment before engaging services, the County could have entered into an agreement with a vendor that was disbarred from receiving federal funding. Repeat Finding: Not a repeat finding. Recommendation: CLA recommends the County implement procedures to ensure that federal guidance is followed relating to suspension and disbarment and provide training on these procedures. Views of responsible officials: There is no disagreement with the audit finding.

Corrective Action Plan

The County of Colusa respectfully submits the following corrective action plan for the year ended June 30, 2024. Audit period: July 1, 2023 – June 30, 2024 The findings from the schedule of findings and questioned costs are discussed below. The findings are numbered consistently with the numbers assigned in the schedule. FINDINGS—FINANCIAL STATEMENT AUDIT No financial statement findings to report in the current year. FINDINGS—FEDERAL AWARD PROGRAMS AUDITS U.S. Department of Agriculture Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) – ALN 10.561 Recommendation: CLA recommends the County implement procedures to ensure that federal guidance is followed relating to suspension and disbarment and provide training on these procedures. Explanation of disagreement with audit finding: There is no disagreement with the audit finding. Action taken in response to finding: The Auditor-Controller’s office will begin discussions with county management to attempt to include within vendor contracts similar verbiage that the county uses within bid proposal requests regarding debarment and suspension. This will assist the County in determining any vendors that have been debarred/suspended prior to entering into a contract. The Auditor-Controller’s office will also look into establishing an internal practice of checking SAMS either semi-annually or annually for vendors that are still active with the county and may have become debarred/suspended during the duration of providing services to the county. Name(s) of the contact person(s) responsible for corrective action: Robert Zunino Planned completion date for corrective action plan: 6/30/2025 If there are any questions regarding this plan, please call Robert Zunino at (530)-458-0415.

Other Findings in this Audit

1106207 2024-001

Material Weakness

Programs in Audit

ALN	Program Name	Expenditures
93.659	Adoption Assistance	$1.17M
10.561	State Administrative Matching Grants for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program	$872,418
21.027	Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds	$813,324
93.558	Temporary Assistance for Needy Families	$789,852
93.658	Foster Care Title IV-E	$477,074
93.959	Block Grants for Prevention and Treatment of Substance Abuse	$434,691
93.323	Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (elc)	$377,887
15.226	Payments in Lieu of Taxes	$292,192
97.042	Emergency Management Performance Grants	$244,552
93.268	Immunization Cooperative Agreements	$198,714
93.958	Block Grants for Community Mental Health Services	$154,330
16.575	Crime Victim Assistance	$152,105
93.889	National Bioterrorism Hospital Preparedness Program	$112,833
93.977	Sexually Transmitted Diseases (std) Prevention and Control Grants	$103,802
14.228	Community Development Block Grants/entitlement Grants	$102,309
93.069	Public Health Emergency Preparedness	$95,538
93.994	Maternal and Child Health Services Block Grant to the States	$76,594
93.391	California Equitable Recovery Initiative	$47,323
93.667	Social Services Block Grant	$33,116
93.556	Promoting Safe and Stable Families	$30,773
93.045	Special Programs for the Aging, Title Iii, Part C, Nutrition Services	$30,522
93.045	Special Programs for the Aging, Title Iii, Part B - Grants for Supportive Services and Senior Centers	$25,466
97.067	Homeland Security Grant Program	$22,696
93.674	Chafee Foster Care Independence Program	$20,000
14.231	Emergency Solutions Grant	$15,123
14.239	Home Investment Partnerships Program: Outstanding Loans	$8,865
16.607	Bureau of Justice Assistance	$8,165
93.053	Nutrition Services Incentive Program	$7,689
10.025	Plant and Animal Disease, Pest Control, and Animal Care	$7,567
20.205	Highway Planning and Construction	$6,045
20.106	Airport Improvement Program	$3,261
16.585	Drug Court Discretionary Grant Program	$2,301
93.747	Elder Abuse Prevention Interventions Program	$1,639
93.778	Medical Assistance Program	$305