Report 2017-129 Recommendation 6 Responses
Report 2017-129: Department of Rehabilitation: Its Inadequate Guidance and Oversight of the Grant Process Led to Inconsistencies and Perceived Bias in Its Evaluations and Awards of Some Grants (Release Date: July 2018)
Recommendation #6 To: Rehabilitation, Department of
To increase transparency and ensure that applicants have the information necessary to understand the grant process, Rehabilitation should include in its RFAs clear scoring criteria and descriptions of the evaluation, award, and appeals processes, including the process it will use to address applications that receive tied scores.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022
The Traumatic Brain Injury RFA awarded in March 2022 included clear tie breaker language. The Department will provide the CSA contact the RFA with highlighted language that addresses the tied score process. Page 15 of the RFA contains tie score language.
- Completion Date: March 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021
The current Traumatic Brain Injury Request or Application (RFA) released in September 2021 includes clear tie breaker language. Per CSA's request the Department will provide documentation to demonstrate full implementation of the CSA recommendation after grant award.
- Estimated Completion Date: 1/2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2020
The Department revised the GSM in October 2018 to include these recommendations and implemented these practices during the Department's first RFA solicitation process after Report 2017-129 was published. These changes are contained in the GSM Interim Guidance: October 2018.
- Completion Date: February 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Partially Implemented
Rehabilitation's revised grant solicitation manual states that the method of the tiebreaker must be provided in the RFA. However, Rehabilitation did not include its tiebreaker methodology in its most recent RFA for the Systems Change grant. Because this information was not included, during a bidders' conference related to the grant, a stakeholder inquired about the tiebreaker methodology. Although Rehabilitation provided the methodology at that time, it should have included the tiebreaker methodology in its RFA directly. As a result, we have assessed the status of this recommendation as partially implemented. We look forward to reviewing Rehabilitation's future annual responses to ensure it has fully implemented this recommendation.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019
The Department is in the process of developing confidentiality procedures applicable to the grant solicitation process and will carry out these practices in future grant solicitations.
- Estimated Completion Date: July 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
1-Year Agency Response
The Department has revised the GSM to include these recommendations and will carry out these practices in future grant solicitations.
- Estimated Completion Date: August 2019
- Response Date: July 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending
6-Month Agency Response
The Department has revised the GSM to include these recommendations and will carry out these practices in future grant solicitations.
- Estimated Completion Date: GSM Interim Guidance - October 2018: Final GSM - After regulatory process has concluded
- Response Date: January 2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
The Department has revised the GSM to include these recommendations and will carry out these practices in future grant solicitations.
- Estimated Completion Date: October 2018 for Interim GSM; Final GSM after regulatory process has concluded
- Response Date: September 2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2017-129
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.