Audit of Bid Specification Requirements for Soliciations, January 2018

2. Documentation ensuring established contracts do not exist . Observation The Procurement Manual, Chapter 7.2.E related to RFIQ's (Category Two purchases) and Chapter 7.3.A.4 related to IFQ's (Category Three purchases) states that “no [Category Two / Category Three] purchase transactions shall be permitted where equivalent commodities or services are already available" under an existing contract, master contract, blanket contract, or term contract, except with written approval of the Procurement Official. SOP #38 – Request for Informal Quotes (RFIQ) Process, includes a step for the procurement analyst to ensure no existing contracts are in place for the products and/or services being requested. SOP #20 – Formal Invitation for Quotes (“IFQ”) Process, does not include a step to ensure this is being completed. Neither SOP requires that this process be documented. Through discussions with staff, it was determined the department does not issue solicitations where existing contracts are already in place. However, there is no evidence that the review procedure was performed to ensure there are no existing contracts prior to issuing a solicitation. Recommendation To ensure compliance with the Procurement Manual, SOP #20 – Formal Invitation for Quotes (“IFQ”) Process, should be enhanced by requiring the procurement analyst to verify that no existing contract is in place for the products and/or services being requested. Additionally, both SOP’s should be enhanced to ensure the review of existing contracts is being performed and documented. Management Response A solicitation worksheet is submitted by a department along with a help ticket to initiate the services of the Procurement Office. The solicitation worksheet will be modified to include an area for the department to indicate that the products and/or services being requested are not available pursuant to an existing agreement. The Procurement Manual SOP #20 will be updated to require the procurement practitioner responsible for managing the request to verify the accuracy of the information by reviewing the available existing contracts list and initialing the solicitation worksheet where appropriate. 8 | A u d i t 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 J a n u a r y 2 0 1 8