x. Management Response and Corrective Action Plan:
The first of the two identified vendors – Maxim/Amergis - is an employment agency with a specialty in staffing providers who work in the healthcare and social services field. NBCC was seeking to hire an RN. Significant documentable effort was invested in hiring an RN with the necessary experience to fill our vacant RN Healthcare Navigator position. After months of being unable to find an appropriate candidate, NBCC sought consultation from the Santa Barbara County Department of Public Health who advised us of the name of the employment agency (Maxim/Amergis) that is used by the Department of Public Health and Department of Behavioral Wellness to staff
their RN positions. We reached out to Maxim/Amergis, provided them with the job listing, and reviewed resumes and interviewed candidates until we found an appropriate match. This was a prolonged and involved process where we spent a significant amount of time working to hire the best suited RN for working in the field with the homeless and formerly homeless individuals we serve. We did not perceive this to be a traditional procurement effort and therefore did not create a written analysis of our efforts to identify and hire an RN, nor did we conduct a SAM search on the company given that the company routinely staffs our departments of behavioral and public health.
The second identified vendor is Paychex. We believe our efforts to secure a new payroll solution company were very much aligned with Uniform Guidance rules. Our external accounting firm and multiple staff spent more than one year interviewing multiple potential payroll solution providers, including but not limited to, Paychex, ADP, ClickUp, Inova, Credible, and Replicon, among others. We only reviewed two written cost proposals because only two of the researched and consulted companies were able to provide a solution that could potentially meet our government timesheet needs. We conducted multiple meetings with our external accounting firm and internal staff discussing and analyzing the solution options, but a summary of these discussions was not created. In addition, Paychex is a provider to a number of nonprofits we consulted, including a local grantee who was using their service, and who we were advised had developed a system similar to what we needed for our time and activity reporting requirements. We therefore presumed Paychex was not a debarred contractor given that other nonprofits we spoke to who have the same funding were utilizing their services. Moving forward, we recognize we must write a written analysis of our processes and that we should not assume a vendor has not been debarred given their existing customers and will be sure to confirm a company’s standing on SAM. As a further example of our commitment to always remaining current with procurement standards, at the direction of the Executive Director, our Operations Director had previously enrolled in a two-day Procurement Boot Camp training which occurred this week. Our Operations Director will revisit our procurement process as a result of this finding and after attending the procurement training and will make revisions to our procurement process as necessary to ensure future compliance with Uniform Guidance. Any updates will be made to the NBCC Internal Controls Manual and any new processes will be adhered to subsequent to those revisions.
xi. Contact Person (s) Responsible for Corrective Action:
Kristine Schwarz, Executive Director, kschwarz@sbnbcc.org
Brenda Lang, Operations Director, blang@sbnbcc.org
Michael Dzierski, Finance Director, mdzierski@sbnbcc.org
xii. Anticipated Completion Date:
The anticipated completion date is May 31, 2025.