Finding Text
2022-003 Suspension and Debarment Control Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity for Infectious Diseases (ELC), Assistance Listing #93.323; Special Education Cluster, Assistance Listing #84.027 and #84.173; Emergency Connectivity Fund (ECF) Program, Assistance Listing #32.009 Compliance Requirement: Suspension and Debarment Material Weakness in Internal Control over Compliance Criteria: Non-federal entities are prohibited from contracting with or making subawards under covered transactions to parties that are suspended or debarred. ?Covered transactions? include contracts for goods and services awarded under a nonprocurement transaction (e.g., grant or cooperative agreement) that are expected to equal or exceed $25,000 or meet certain other criteria as specified in 2 CFR section 180.220. All non-procurement transactions entered into by a pass-through entity (i.e., subawards to subrecipients), irrespective of award amount, are considered covered transactions, unless they are exempt as provided in 2 CFR section 180.215. When a non-federal entity enters into a covered transaction with an entity at a lower tier, the non-federal entity must verify that the entity, as defined in 2 CFR section 180.995 and agency adopting regulations, is not suspended or debarred or otherwise excluded from participating in the transaction. This verification may be accomplished by (1) checking the System for Award Management (SAM) Exclusions maintained by the General Services Administration (GSA) and available at https://www.beta.sam.gov/ (click on Search Record, then click on Advanced Search-Exclusions) (Note: The OMB guidance at 2 CFR Part 180 and agency implementing regulations still refer to the SAM Exclusions as the Excluded Parties List System (EPLS)), (2) collecting a certification from the entity, or (3) adding a clause or condition to the covered transaction with that entity (2 CFR section 180.300). Condition: During the fiscal year ended June 30, 2022, it does not appear that the expenditures under the federal grants have a consistent control in place to check applicable vendors for potential suspension and/or debarment for covered transactions. Any such controls are not documented for a proper audit trail. No vendors selected in our testwork were listed as suspended or debarred. Cause: The District does not appear to have a consistent process in place to check vendors under covered transactions ($25,000 or more) in accordance with federal regulations. Effect: The District could be out of compliance with federal requirements regarding suspension and debarment controls by potentially contracting with a suspended or debarred vendor. Context/Sampling: No covered transactions in our nonstatistical sample appeared to have a verifiable control in place to identify the vendor as suspended or debarred prior to transacting with that vendor. Repeat Finding From Prior Year: No Questioned costs: None, no vendors in our samples were listed as suspended or debarred. Recommendation: Control procedures should be implemented to ensure that all vendors under covered transactions are checked against the federal website for vendors that could be suspended or debarred prior to transacting with such vendors or another process as allowed by the federal regulations discussed above. Views of Responsible Officials: We agree with the finding. The Purchasing Director does check all new applicable vendors for potential debarment, but has not retained written documentation of his process. We will now ensure documentation is retained.