Report 2015-121 Recommendation 13 Responses

Report 2015-121: California Department of Veterans Affairs: The State Paid Nearly $28 Million for a Flawed System That Fails to Meet the Needs of Its Veterans Homes (Release Date: June 2016)

Recommendation #13 To: Technology, California Department of

To ensure accountability and independence between the provision of IPO and IV&V services, the Technology Department should, by December 2016, establish a written policy requiring departments that request and receive approval to contract for IPO services to use a different contractor than the one providing IV&V services.

1-Year Agency Response

The CDT updated State Administrative Manual, (SAM), section 4940.3 with language to address this recommendation.

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

6-Month Agency Response

The CDT plans to incorporate the recommendation #13 changes into SIMM 45 to be among additional policy guidance concerning standardization of IV&V contracting terms. The final draft policy review is expected to occur in January 2017, with a new planned completion date that was formerly December 2016 to February 2017.

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

60-Day Agency Response

The CDT agrees with this recommendation and will develop policy so that if CDT allows state entities to use contracted vendors for Independent Project Oversight services, it will be under the management of the CDT and will not be the same vendor that provides Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) services on that same project.

Corrective Action Progress: The CDT's policy for the aforementioned Corrective Action Plan is currently under development.

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

All Recommendations in 2015-121

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.