Report 2009-103 Recommendation 2 Responses
Report 2009-103: Departments of Health Care Services and Public Health: Their Actions Reveal Flaws in the State's Oversight of the California Constitution's Implied Civil Service Mandate and in the Departments' Contracting for Information Technology Services (Release Date: September 2009)
Recommendation #2 To: Health Care Services, Department of
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.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2015
DHCS current contract database sufficiently meets the department's needs. As stated in the one-year status report, based on the results of DHCS' business requirements assessment and the current low volume of contracts it is not economically feasible to create a new database. In addition, Budget Letter 08-05 placed a moratorium on the development and enhancement of information technology systems that duplicate functionality of the Financial Information Systems for California (FI$Cal). The FI$Cal system will encompass procurement issues including contracts, requisitions, and purchase orders. It will be a comprehensive information exchange system that will be used to generate, administer, and manage all contracts, purchases, and grant agreements from initiation through final payment. In the interim DHCS' Purchasing Unit will add a "Term Date" column to the Excel spreadsheet that records all Information Technology (IT) purchase requisitions that result in a purchase order. Start and end dates will be logged for those purchases that include or involve an IT service. Term information will be recorded for all IT services procured on or after July 1, 2010. Contract Management Unit staff will continue to record IT service transactions obtained via a Standard Agreement into DHCS' existing service contract system.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Will Not Implement
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2013
DHCS current contract database sufficiently meets the department's needs. As stated in the one-year status report, based on the results of DHCS' business requirements assessment and the current low volume of contracts it is not economically feasible to create a new database. In addition, Budget Letter 08-05 placed a moratorium on the development and enhancement of information technology systems that duplicate functionality of the Financial Information Systems for California (FI$Cal). The FI$Cal system will encompass procurement issues including contracts, requisitions, and purchase orders. It will be a comprehensive information exchange system that will be used to generate, administer, and manage all contracts, purchases, and grant agreements from initiation through final payment. In the interim DHCS' Purchasing Unit will add a "Term Date" column to the Excel spreadsheet that records all Information Technology (IT) purchase requisitions that result in a purchase order. Start and end dates will be logged for those purchases that include or involve an IT service. Term information will be recorded for all IT services procured on or after July 1, 2010. Contract Management Unit staff will continue to record IT service transactions obtained via a Standard Agreement into DHCS' existing service contract system.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Will Not Implement
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2012
DHCS current contract database sufficiently meets the department's needs. As stated in the one-year status report, based on the results of DHCS' business requirements assessment and the current low volume of contracts it is not economically feasible to create a new database. In addition, Budget Letter 08-05 placed a moratorium on the development and enhancement of information technology systems that duplicate functionality of the Financial Information System for California (FI$Cal). The FI$Cal system will encompass procurement issues including contracts, requisitions, and purchase orders. It will be a comprehensive information exchange system that will be used to generate, administer, and manage all contracts, purchases, and grant agreements from initiation through final payment. In the interim DHCS' Purchasing Unit will add a “Term Date” column to the Excel spreadsheet that records all Information Technology (IT) purchase requisitions that result in a purchase order. Start and end dates will be logged for those purchases that include or involve an IT service. Term information will be recorded for all IT services procured on or after July 1, 2010. Contract Management Unit staff will continue to record IT service transactions obtained via a Standard Agreement into DHCS' existing service contract tracking system.
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Will Not Implement
All Recommendations in 2009-103
Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.