Report 2009-114 Recommendation 7 Responses

Report 2009-114: Department of General Services: It No Longer Strategically Sources Contracts and Has Not Assessed Their Impact on Small Businesses and Disabled Veteran Business Enterprises (Release Date: July 2010)

Recommendation #7 To: General Services, Department of

To ensure that it has maximized the savings for CGI-recommended categories that it did not strategically source, General Services should conduct its planned review of these categories to determine if there are further opportunities to achieve savings.

1-Year Agency Response

General Services completed its review of consultant-recommended categories that it did not strategically source and concluded that none of the 20 categories warranted additional strategic sourcing contracting efforts. General Services noted that its review confirmed that it used other traditional acquisition techniques to acquire those goods or services that accomplished the same goal as strategic sourcing. It noted that for the remaining categories, such as architectural and engineering services, electricity, and leased real property, the review determined that the categories were of such a broad nature that strategic sourcing techniques could not be applied. In response to our request for documentation of the analysis performed that resulted in its conclusions, General Services provided a document of about three pages. The document commented on the results of each of the categories for which it or others conducted traditional acquisition methods. For many of the categories, General Savings indicated that either savings would be measured by individual contract or savings were not measured. Additionally, General Services described the factors that it believes prevent strategic sourcing of other categories. However, although General Services completed its planned review, we note that the review was unable to report aggregate savings information for many of the categories for which it indicated traditional acquisition techniques were used. This underscores the need for General Services, as it implements our recommendations regarding future purchases, to ensure that it is tracking actual savings in such a way that it can compare them against expected savings. (2012-406, p. 34).

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

All Recommendations in 2009-114

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.