Finding Text
2022 -003 Procurement, Suspension, and Debarment Federal Agency: US Department of Health and Human Services Federal Program Name: Maternal, Infant, Early Childhood Home Visiting Assistance Listing Number: 93.870 Federal Award Identification Number and Award Period: X10MC43597 - 9/1/2021-9/29/23 X10MC39703 - 9/30/2020-9/29/2022 X11MC41939 -05/01/21-09/30/23 6X11MC45479-01-02 - 12/31/21-9/30/24 Type of Finding: Material Weakness in Internal Control and Material Noncompliance (Modified Opinion) Criteria or Specific Requirement: UG ?200.318 General procurement standards. The non-Federal entity must maintain records sufficient to detail the history of procurement. These records will include, but are not necessarily limited to the following: Rationale for the method of procurement, selection of contract type, contractor selection or rejection, and the basis for the contract price. Additionally, 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 non-procurement 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. Condition: During our testing, we noted the following: ? 5 out of 6 applicable agreements were not supported by evidence of appropriate procurement before entering into agreement with the entity to provide services for the program. ? 4 out of 6 applicable agreements did not include the Department's Attachment 3 - "ECECD Suspension and Debarment Form". No other evidence of SAM check provided as evidence of check before entering into agreement with entity to provide services for the program ? 3 out of the 6 agreements reviewed included language to identify the entity as a subrecipient. However, not such monitoring of other required subrecipient protocols were followed because program staff did not believe they used subrecipients. Questioned Costs: N/A Context: Total amount of agreements subject to the suspension and debarment thresholds is 6. We tested all applicable agreements under this program. 2022 -003 Procurement, Suspension, and Debarment (Continued) Cause: Lack of adequate communication between program staff and ASD personnel responsible for procurements and development of agreements to make sure the adequate language was included. Effect: Department may not have followed federal guidelines for procuring vendors. Repeat Finding: No Recommendation: We recommend the program staff and ASD staff responsible for procuring contracts review federal compliance requirements to ensure appropriate language is included in all agreements Views of Responsible Officials: The Early Childhood Education and Care Department (ECECD) agrees with this audit finding in that the Agency did not provide CLA with the appropriate information needed to test for federal compliance requirements. Although the Agency?s Certified Procurement Officer (CPO) later verified that all agreements did contain the required ?Suspension and Debarment? language, it was too late to test in time to submit the audit on time. The various departments of ECECD will use this finding to ensure that designated ASD and Program staff fully understand the importance of providing complete and accurate information to the auditors. In addition, ECECD ASD will work toward improving communication regarding potential audit findings to the appropriate program staff, allowing for enough time to address the potential finding and possibly avoid a finding altogether. This will be completed by June 30, 2023.