Report 2016-124 Recommendation 8 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 #8 To: General Services, Department of

To ensure that the State receives the best value for its contracts, for noncompetitive requests, General Services should immediately require agencies to quantify and substantiate their cost savings or averted costs.

1-Year Agency Response

Updates to the Non-Competitively Bid (NCB) Contract Justification request form and State Contracting Manual (SCM) Volumes to provide guidance regarding quantifying and substantiating agencies' cost savings or averted costs 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 drafted updates to the Non-Competitive Bid (NCB) Contract Justification request form to ensure that agencies are quantifying and substantiating their cost savings or averted costs. In addition, analysts continue to ask additional questions or seek additional documentation to ensure the necessary information to quantify and substantiate cost savings is included in the NCB file, when necessary. Once the updates to the NCB form 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 revising the Non-Competitive Bid (NCB) Contract Justification request form to reiterate that agencies must, in addition to providing a description of the cost savings/cost avoided, quantify and substantiate their cost savings or averted costs when feasible. In addition, while DGS is revising the NCB request form, analysts are asking additional questions or seeking additional documentation to ensure the necessary information to quantify and substantiate cost savings is included in the NCB file, when necessary.

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

All Recommendations in 2016-124

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.