Follow-Up for Bid Specification Requirements for Solicitations, November 2018

2 |  F o l l o w ‐ u p o f B i d S p e c i f i c a t i o n R e q u i r e m e n t s f o r S o l i c i t a t i o n s  N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 8  Executive Summary As part of the Annual Audit Plan, the Clerk of Circuit Court and County Comptroller’s  Internal  Audit Department and Office of the Inspector General  conducted an independent follow‐up  audit of Bid Specification Requirements for Solicitations. The purpose of the audit was to  evaluate the steps taken to address the observations reported in the original audit report.   The original audit detected issues of non‐compliance with the guidelines found in the  Procurement Manual and Standard Operating Procedures (SOP’s). Since the original audit, the  Procurement Division, a division within the Office of Financial Management, has made  modifications to the SOP’s and the procurement process by requiring proof of insurance to be  obtained with the Notice of Recommended Award (NORA) prior to authorization from the  Procurement Official or designee. The division had modified the solicitation worksheet to  ensure verification that an existing contract does not exist. The Addendum Process and the  related SOP have been modified to include secondary approval from the Procurement  Manager. Although the SOP has been revised, instances where addendums have been  approved without secondary approval have been identified.  Lack of compliance with departmental SOP’s when obtaining proof of insurance in the  solicitation process rather than in the purchase requisition process, could result in higher non‐ insurable risk from the bidder after the NORA has been awarded. Moreover, non secondary  approval of the addendums by management could potentially result in the Senior Procurement  Analyst having sole control of the addendum process, which could lead to modifications being  made to a solicitation in order to benefit a related party.