Purchasing Department

Departments are unwilling to delete the information from hard drives

Some departments have technicians who believe it is useful to have inventory

Misappropriation of parts $260 million worth of supplies and services is purchased annually for County departments. At least 7-8 signatures are required to finalize a purchase. The department collects approximately $80,000 annually from three public sales of surplus property. Labor costs reduce the profit to $30,000. To save money, the department wants to conduct just two sales of surplus properties to the public yearly. 2003-2004 San Bernardino County Grand Jury Final Report 42 Board of Supervisors approval is required only if services and construction exceed $25,000 per item. If budgeted by the department, there is no limit on goods, supplies and materials any County department can obtain. Our investigation found that the Purchasing Department needs new procurement software programs for much of the work it now does manually. It is not possible to obtain the necessary software that is compatible with the current County Financial Management System program. The only software program now available for the Purchasing Department is AMS 3.0. It is not compatible with the current Financial Management System software AMS 2.1.1. The Information Services Department explored a plan that would work, using the two software versions. This plan would cost the County $1,206,200, plus a one-time start-up cost of $185,015. It is not a long term solution, only a temporary one. Along with the high costs, the two systems will never be completely synchronized, and the departments would have different data. To get a complete current, accurate financial picture, the different departments will have to utilize both systems. This is not a practical solution. It will cost the County $5,000,000 to update the Financial Management System and purchase procurement software for the Purchasing Department.