Report 2009-103 Recommendations

To comply with requirements in the State Administrative Manual, Health Care Services should refrain from funding permanent full-time employees with the State's funding mechanism for temporary-help positions.

To readily identify active IT and other contracts, Health Care Services should either revise its existing contract database or develop and implement a new contract database.

To ensure that Finance and relevant legislative budget subcommittees are able to assess its need for additional IT positions, Health Care Services should prepare BCPs that provide more accurate depictions of the departments existing conditions.

To ensure that reporting into General Services contracts database is accurate and complete, both departments should establish a review-and-approval process for entering their contract information into the database.

To promote fairness and to obtain the best value for the State, the two departments should demonstrate their compliance with General Services’ policies and procedures. Specifically, in their requests for offer, they should provide potential suppliers with the criteria and points that they will use to evaluate their offers.

To ensure that each contract receives the levels of approval required in state rules and in their policies and procedures, the departments should obtain approval by their agency secretary and directors on contracts over specified dollar thresholds.

To make certain that it fairly evaluates offers and supplier responses, both departments should ensure that they obtain annual financial interest statements from all designated employees.

To verify that its consultants comply with the knowledge-transfer provisions of its IT contracts, and to promote the development of its own IT staff, Health Care Services should require its contract managers to document the completion of knowledge-transfer activities specified in its IT contracts.

To promote fairness and to obtain the best value for the State, Public Health should demonstrate its compliance with General Services' policies and procedures. Specifically, in its requests for offer, it should provide potential suppliers with the criteria and points that it will use to evaluate their offers.

To vet more thoroughly the Section 19130(b) justifications put forward by the departments’ contract managers, to ensure the timely communication of board decisions to the contract managers, and to make certain that disapproved contracts have been appropriately terminated, legal services in both departments should review the Section 19130(b) justifications put forward by the contract managers for proposed personal services contracts deemed high risk, such as subsequent contracts for the same or similar services as those in contracts disapproved by the board.

To vet more thoroughly the Section 19130(b) justifications put forward by the departments’ contract managers, to ensure the timely communication of board decisions to the contract managers, and to make certain that disapproved contracts have been appropriately terminated, legal services in both departments should notify contract managers of the board’s decisions in a timely manner and retain records in the case files showing when and how the notifications were made.

To vet more thoroughly the Section 19130(b) justifications put forward by the departments’ contract managers, to ensure the timely communication of board decisions to the contract managers, and to make certain that disapproved contracts have been appropriately terminated, legal services in both departments should require documentation from the contract managers demonstrating the termination of disapproved contracts and retain this documentation in the case files.

To readily identify active IT and other contracts, Public Health should continue its efforts to develop and implement a new contract database.

To ensure that reporting into General Services contracts database is accurate and complete, both departments should establish a review-and-approval process for entering their contract information into the database.

To make certain that it procures only maintenance services allowed in the State’s master agreement with Visara, Public Health should either make appropriate changes to its current Visara contract or have General Services and Visara make appropriate changes to Visara’s master agreement.

To ensure that each contract receives the levels of approval required in state rules and in their policies and procedures, the departments should obtain approval by their agency secretary and directors on contracts over specified dollar thresholds.

Public Health should obtain approval from its IT division on all IT contracts, as specified in departmental policy.

To make certain that it fairly evaluates offers and supplier responses, Public Health should amend its procedures to include provisions to obtain and retain annual financial interest statements from its offer evaluators.

To make certain that it fairly evaluates offers and supplier responses, both departments should ensure that they obtain annual financial interest statements from all designated employees.

Public Health should ensure that its conflict-of-interest code is consistent with the requirements of the Political Reform Act.