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Score: +11 (11/5/0)
Monterey County Grand Jury • 2020-2021

An Examination of Monterey County Contracting and Purchasing Practices*

Published: May 14, 2021 16 pages
View PDF View Full Original

Findings and Recommendations 18 findings

F1
The Contracts/ Purchasing division of the Monterey County Administrative Office does not have access to all contracts executed by/on behalf of the County, which inhibits visibility and transparency of vital management information.
Related Recommendations (3)
R1
Develop a uniform set of required contract information (to include but not limited to Terms and Conditions, vendor information, overall cost, unit cost) to support sound decision-making for all County departments. (F1,2,3,4,5) This recommendation should be implemented by the CAO on or before January 31, 2022.
R2
Establish and fully implement a system that provides online, real-time access to all Monterey County contract information that meets the unique needs of individual departments. (F1,2,3,4,5) This recommendation should be implemented by the CAO on or before April 1,2022.
R3
Provide a system and training designed to promote collaboration among the County's departmental employees and staff in the Contracting/Purchasing division of the County Administrative Office. (F1,2,3,4,5) This recommendation should be implemented by the CAO on or before February 1,2022.
F2
Two Monterey County departments have developed homegrown software systems to track contracts, while other departments use Microsoft Excel or other methods for contract tracking. Because contract tracking is performed using multiple methods at the departmental level, cumulative contract business across Monterey County government departments requires manual tabulation. The lack of timely information being available to decision-makers can contribute to ineffective decision making by senior management. Based upon discussions with numerous Department level employees, not having standardized contract information available across Monterey County government departments precludes information sharing and could lead to poor business decisions such as inconsistent terms and conditions and variable pricing among other contract stipulations.
No recommendations for this finding
F3
Based upon discussions with Department level employees, a lack of departmental access to other department contracts is a barrier to consistent pricing from vendors and creates the potential for different departments to pay the same vendor different prices for the same services.
No recommendations for this finding
F4
Based upon discussions with Department level employees, a lack of departmental access to other department contracts is a barrier to checking experience with vendors among the various County departments.
No recommendations for this finding
F5
Based upon discussions with Department level employees, the lack of a method of providing real-time contract details could lead to added cost when multiple departments are competing for the same services from the same supplier.
No recommendations for this finding
F6
Standard Operating Procedures associated with the Contracts & Purchasing Academy, as approved by the Board of Supervisors on July 22, 2014, are not consistently followed in some Monterey County government departments which has the potential for County employees to avoid policies and procedures deemed critical by the Board of Supervisors for the efficient execution of contract commitments on behalf of the County.
Related Recommendations (1)
R8
Require Monterey County government departments to follow the Contracts & Purchasing Academy Standard Operations Procedures adopted by the Board of Supervisors July 22, 2014. (F6) This recommendation should be implemented by the Board of Supervisors on or before February 1, 2022.
F7
The County's practice of allowing departmental-level staff ("The person in a department with the need for supplies or services") to contact potential suppliers may create bias toward or away from some suppliers, leading to reduced competitiveness in County purchasing. This also takes away the vital negotiating tool of using a professional negotiator to seek the best terms and conditions available.
No recommendations for this finding
F8
The County's practice of allowing "The person in a department with the need for supplies or services" to contact potential suppliers can create the potential for such staff to make an unauthorized or inadvertent commitment.
No recommendations for this finding
F9
The County's practice of allowing "The person in a department with the need for supplies or services" to negotiate contracts with suppliers could lead to fraud and abuse.
No recommendations for this finding
F10
Not requiring Monterey County departments to use the Contracts/Purchasing division to acquire goods and services can lead to staff who are not contracting specialists agreeing to contracts that are not optimal.
No recommendations for this finding
F11
The Contracts & Purchasing Academy is a valuable resource for Monterey County employees because it guides them through the contracts and purchasing processes.
Related Recommendations (2)
R4
Continue to fund the Contracts & Purchasing Academy course material updates. (F11,12,13,14) This recommendation should be implemented by the CAO on or before February 1, 2022.
R6
Require all Monterey County departmental managers and employees involved in contracts and purchasing to recertify their contracts and purchasing skills on a periodic basis. (F11,12) This recommendation should be implemented by the Board of Supervisors on or before February 1, 2022.
F12
Training offered by the Contracts & Purchasing Academy is not required of all Monterey County employees involved in contracting and purchasing of supplies and services, which could cause those employees to deviate from the Contracts and Purchasing Standard Operating Procedures.
No recommendations for this finding
F13
Discussions with numerous Department level personnel revealed that ethics and contract management training was either minimal or nonexistent in the current format of the Contracts & Purchasing Academy, which may lead to unintentional ethical lapses and the perception by county employees that they have authority beyond what law and regulations allow. New departmental contracting personnel have not been able to attend the Contracts & Purchasing Academy since early in 2020 due to COVID-19, which could lead to errors due to lack of training.
Related Recommendations (1)
R7
Provide a more robust module in the Contracts & Purchasing Academy training materials that directly addresses current contracting ethical standards. (F13) This recommendation should be implemented by the CAO on or before April 1, 2022.
F14
The Contracts & Purchasing Academy is not available online, which is an impediment to achieving and maintaining an optimal level of flexibility in delivery of employee training,
Related Recommendations (1)
R5
The Contracts & Purchasing Academy should be made available in an on- demand, self-directed online instructional format. (F14) This recommendation should be implemented by the CAO on or before April 1. 2022.
F15
The Monterey County Contracts/Purchasing Manual has not been updated since 2008 and may have sections that do not comply with current County and State laws and regulations. County employees who rely on the accuracy of the Manual could use that information to make non-compliant decisions.
No recommendations for this finding
F16
The Manual lacks an index, glossary, and references about where to obtain more information. In addition, the Manual's table of contents does not contain page numbers, making it difficult to use.
No recommendations for this finding
F17
The Manual does not connect to County training in contracts and purchasing- including required ethics involved in contracts and purchasing, making it difficult for employees to gain a deeper understanding of their responsibilities.
Related Recommendations (1)
R9
Update the Monterey County Contracts/Purchasing Manual to reflect all current policies and procedures and SOP's. Edit the updated Manual for organization and readability. The County should use the services of a professional editor if internal staff is not a viable resource. (F17) This recommendation should be implemented by the Contract/Purchasing Officer on or before February 1, 2022.
F18
The Manual does not make it clear that it is the final and authoritative source of information for County contracts and purchasing leaving County employees to use other sources for contracts and purchasing policies and procedures which may not align with current County policies and procedures.
Related Recommendations (2)
R10
Update the material in the "Ethical Standards for Purchasing" section of the Monterey County Contracts/Purchasing Manual to be consistent with current contracting ethical standards. (F18) This recommendation should be implemented by the Contracts/Purchasing Officer on or before February 1, 2022.
R11
Emphasize the "Ethical Standards for Purchasing" section of the Monterey County Contracts/Purchasing Manual by expanding the content and repositioning the text. (F18) This recommendation should be implemented by the Contracts/Purchasing Officer on or before February 1, 2022.

Agency Responses 1

Government agencies' official responses to this report's findings and recommendations. Click on a response to see the structured breakdown.

No Responses Found 2

Government entities assigned to respond to this report. No response documents have been linked in our database.

Monterey County County
Monterey County Board of Supervisors Elected County Office

* This report's PDF did not contain easily extractable text and required Optical Character Recognition (OCR) for analysis. There may be minor errors in the extracted findings and recommendations due to OCR limitations with scanned documents.