Report 2009-103 Recommendations and Responses in 2013-041
Report 2009-103: Departments of Health Care Services and Public Health: Their Actions Reveal Flaws in the State's Oversight of the California Constitution's Implied Civil Service Mandate and in the Departments' Contracting for Information Technology Services
| Department | Number of Years Reported As Not Fully Implemented | Total Recommendations to Department | Not Implemented After One Year | Not Implemented as of 2012-041 Response | Not Implemented as of Most Recent Response |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Department of Health Care Services | 4 | 11 | 3 | 2 | 2 |
| Department of Public Health | 4 | 12 | 3 | 1 | 0 |
Recommendation To: Health Care Services, Department of
To comply with requirements in the State Administrative Manual, Health Care Services should refrain from funding permanent full-time employees with the State's funding mechanism for temporary-help positions.
Response
DHCS has taken, and will continue to take, proactive steps to identify positions for those individuals in the temporary help blanket that requires a permanent position.
DHCS will endeavor to limit use of the temp help blanket to those instances which meet the definition in the SAM, Ch. 6500, Sect 6518. In addition, Budget Letter 12-03: Adjust Budget Display to Reflect Actual Expenditures and Eliminate Salary Savings issued March 12, 2012 grants additional flexibility to use blanket authority to fill positions beyond approved position authority on a temporary basis for operational needs. Contrary to the BSA recommendation, it is not inappropriate to place permanent fulltime employees in the temp help blanket. There are a variety of instances and specifically provided for in SAM 6518 and Budget Letter 12-03 to place perm full-time employees in the temp help blanket and as such, DHCS reserves the right to continue as needed.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Will Not Implement
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: Health Care Services, Department of
To readily identify active IT and other contracts, Health Care Services should either revise its existing contract database or develop and implement a new contract database.
Response
DHCS current contract database sufficiently meets the department's needs. As stated in the one-year status report, based on the results of DHCS' business requirements assessment and the current low volume of contracts it is not economically feasible to create a new database. In addition, Budget Letter 08-05 placed a moratorium on the development and enhancement of information technology systems that duplicate functionality of the Financial Information Systems for California (FI$Cal). The FI$Cal system will encompass procurement issues including contracts, requisitions, and purchase orders. It will be a comprehensive information exchange system that will be used to generate, administer, and manage all contracts, purchases, and grant agreements from initiation through final payment. In the interim DHCS' Purchasing Unit will add a "Term Date" column to the Excel spreadsheet that records all Information Technology (IT) purchase requisitions that result in a purchase order. Start and end dates will be logged for those purchases that include or involve an IT service. Term information will be recorded for all IT services procured on or after July 1, 2010. Contract Management Unit staff will continue to record IT service transactions obtained via a Standard Agreement into DHCS' existing service contract system.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Will Not Implement
- Response Date: October 2013
Recommendation To: Public Health, Department of
To promote fairness and to obtain the best value for the State, Public Health should demonstrate its compliance with General Services' policies and procedures. Specifically, in its requests for offer, it should provide potential suppliers with the criteria and points that it will use to evaluate their offers.
Response
As previously reported, the California Department of Public Health (CDPH) issued Contract Bulletin 11-07 dated December 1, 2011, requiring CDPH programs to use a request for offer (RFO) template for procurement of services via Department of General Services approved Leverage Procurement Agreements, i.e. California Multiple Award Schedules and Master Service Agreements.
To ensure compliance, the CDPH Program Support Branch, Contract and Purchasing Services Section (CPSS) reviews RFOs developed by programs prior to putting the RFO out to bid. If CPSS determined a program had not appropriately used the RFO template, CPSS required the program to rewrite, or in rare occasions, rebid the required services with the correct template.
Since January 2013, CPSS issued six purchase orders using the RFO template.
- California State Auditor's Assessment of Status: Fully Implemented
- Completion Date: December 2011
- Response Date: October 2013