Report 2016-124 Recommendation 6 Responses

Report 2016-124: Department of General Services and California Department of Technology: Neither Entity Has Provided the Oversight Necessary to Ensure That State Agencies Consistently Use the Competitive Bidding Process (Release Date: June 2017)

Recommendation #6 To: General Services, Department of

To clarify the allowable reasons for using noncompetitive requests and to ensure that agencies understand these reasons, General Services should, within 180 days, enhance the criteria in the State Contracting Manual to include examples of appropriate and inappropriate circumstances related to justifying a noncompetitive request. In particular, it should clearly reiterate that poor contract planning is not a sufficient justification for a noncompetitive request for all acquisition types. Further, General Services should develop specific criteria for what constitutes an appropriate noncompetitive request for non-IT services acquisitions. General Services should notify all agencies of the clarifications in the State Contracting Manual and should reiterate that all noncompetitive requests must meet the enhanced criteria.

1-Year Agency Response

Updates to the State Contracting Manual (SCM) Volumes that provide enhanced guidance regarding requests submitted through the Non-Competitive Bid (NCB) Contract Justification request form are finalized and have been approved. On June 7, 2018, DGS notified all agencies of the enhanced guidelines through Broadcast Bulletin P-07-18.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Fully Implemented

6-Month Agency Response

General Services (DGS) has reviewed the State Contracting Manual (SCM) Volumes and drafted updates providing enhanced guidance regarding requests submitted through the Non-Competitive Bid (NCB) Contract Justification request form. DGS included criteria for what constitutes an appropriate non-competitive request and examples of appropriate and inappropriate circumstances of justifying a non-competitive request. Once the updates to the SCM Volumes are finalized, DGS will notify all agencies of the enhanced guidelines.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending

60-Day Agency Response

DGS is currently reviewing the State Contracting Manual (SCM) Volumes 1, 2, 3 and SCM FI$Cal and developing updates to provide enhanced guidance regarding requests submitted through the Non-Competitive Bid Contract Justification request form. Specifically, DGS will include criteria for what constitutes an appropriate non-competitive request and examples of appropriate and inappropriate circumstances of justifying a non-competitive request, including non-IT service acquisitions. Once the updates to the SCM Volumes are finalized, DGS will notify all agencies of the enhanced guidelines.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending

All Recommendations in 2016-124

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.