Procurement management

Originally Published: August 24, 2021

As you enter into new federally funded contracts this year, you need to know if your contractor has been banned from doing business with the federal government. Commonly referred to as suspension and debarment, these requirements are fairly easy to comply with, yet they are one of SAO's most common audit findings. We first ran this article in August 2021, and due to its importance, we're republishing it as a reminder.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) Public Assistance Program was activated March 13, 2020, when President Trump declared the ongoing coronavirus pandemic an emergency under the Stafford Act. With recent passage of the CARES Act, the program has received an influx of resources available to state and local governments.

Based on our years of experience auditing FEMA public assistance grants and FEMA's current guidance, we have a few suggestions and resources for you:

Document your expenses

State law (RCW 39.34.030) allows for cooperative purchasing among two or more public agencies. In 2019, the Legislature amended the statute to allow any public agency to use the bid of another public agency for its own purposes if the awarding agency met their own bidding requirements. This is a change to how our Office looks at piggybacking and group purchasing arrangements. For audit purposes, we would expect local governments to evaluate group purchasing contracts as outlined below.

By the Center for Government Innovation

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

The Center for Government Innovation has published two new resources to help local governments identify best practices for two different, but possibly related areas: credit card programs and travel expenditures.

Credit card programs

The Center for Government Innovation has added two procurement-related resources to the Resources Database in recent months:

YAKIMA – The Office of the Washington State Auditor published two audits of the City of Wapato today, documenting significant violations of government standards.

If you are a local government in Washington state, you may be aware of RCW 39.34.030, which allows governments to use other agencies' contracts to buy goods and services – also called “piggybacking.” But what you mi

Are you unsure when the formal competitive bidding process is required?

Brand Name Specification occurs when a government determines a specific brand of equipment is necessary to meet their operational needs.

Local governments have the ability to specify a name brand during their procurement process.