Report 2014-301 Recommendation 6 Responses

Report 2014-301: Judicial Branch Procurement: Five Superior Courts Did Not Consistently Follow Judicial Branch Contracting Practices (Release Date: November 2014)

Recommendation #6 To: Superior Court of California, County of Alameda

To improve its procurement practices and comply with the judicial contracting manual, the Alameda court should ensure that it either anticipates contracts expiring and competitively rebids them timely or establishes proper noncompetitive amendments to the contracts as the judicial contracting manual specifies.

Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2016

The Court has created and implemented an annual plan which includes all contracts with expiration dates, action due dates, and type of action needed in order to anticipate any circumstance where competitive bidding is required. The plan will be updated annually and accounts for those contracts expiring within the next calendar year.

California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented

1-Year Agency Response

See comments below regarding this response.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: No Action Taken

Alameda County Superior Court has not responded to our repeated requests over the past year to provide the actions it has taken or plans to take to implement our recommendation. As a result, the status of the court's implementation of our recommendation is unknown.

6-Month Agency Response

The Court has created an annual plan which includes all contracts with expiration and action dates in order to anticipate any action where competitive bidding is required. This will be updated annually and account for those contracts expiring within that calendar year.

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

Although Alameda asserts that it has created an annual plan to track and anticipate contracts expiring, it has not provided us a copy of the plan. Instead, Alameda gave us a copy of a sample of an annual plan.

60-Day Agency Response

The Court will ensure that proper justification and support are provided when entering into noncompetitive procurements. The Court has started to obtain proper documentation from its contractors whose services are provided as community rehabilitation programs. We should be completed with the process of collecting certified community rehabilitation program certificates by June 2015.

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

All Recommendations in 2014-301

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.