Audit of the County of Kaua‘i Disaster-Related Procurement
from Kauai County Auditor, Report 24-01, January, 2024 (excerpts)
This performance audit of the County of Kaua‘i’s (“County”) Disaster-Related Procurement was designed to examine whether the County is following proper policies, processes, rules, and laws (County, State, and federal) as it relates to the procurement of services for construction contracts involving disaster response or recovery cleanup work….
This performance audit examines disaster-related procurement and awards in response to the flooding on Kaua‘i in April 2018 (“RAIN 18”) and March 2020 (“RAIN 20”).1 The audit examined whether the County is following proper policies, processes, rules, and laws (County, State, and federal) as they relate to the procurement of services for construction contracts involving disaster response or recovery cleanup work….
The audit findings and recommendations are summarized as follows:
Finding 1. Of the nine projects seeking FEMA reimbursement related to RAIN 18, project files for five included all federally required documents, and four did not include all federally required documents.
Nine projects totaling $10,263,523 sought Federal Emergency Management Agency (“FEMA”) reimbursement. In order to seek FEMA reimbursement, procurements must comply with federal standards in Title 2 of the Code of Federal Regulations (“CFR”), Chapter 2 (“Uniform Administrative Requirements” or “2 CFR 200”), §§ 218 through 326. If the entity meets local or state procurement standards, but fails to meet federal procurement standards, reimbursement of all otherwise eligible funds is jeopardized.
Of the nine projects, one lacked required State compliance documentation.3
A FEMA Procurement Checklist (“FEMA Checklist”), created by FEMA and adopted and amended by the County, was used to assist agencies seeking FEMA reimbursement for procurements associated with the April 2018 flooding.
All nine project files seeking FEMA reimbursement related to RAIN 18 included FEMA Checklists. However, no FEMA Checklists were completed properly or fully. Although the County intended to implement the FEMA Checklist as an internal control to meet the federal requirements, there were several incomplete or improperly completed sections, and, more importantly, no assurance that the minimum federal procurement standards for FEMA reimbursement were met.
In general, projects seeking FEMA reimbursement could be subject to an Office of the Inspector General’s (“OIG”) audit. The OIG Department of Homeland Security (“DHS”) periodically performs audits of FEMA grant awards. Funding de-obligations (returns) may occur when there is ineligible spending or non-compliance with federal procurement or documentation requirements….
Finding 2. The County’s position that all procurement laws are suspended under a Governor’s Emergency Proclamation allows for non-competitive procurements to occur. However, the County does not have policies or procedures over preparing for emergencies, how to procure goods and services in emergency situations, or how to differentiate between response and recovery circumstances.
Of the 34 contracts and purchase orders (“POs”) we reviewed related to RAIN 18 projects, 21 were procured non-competitively on the basis of the Governor’s Emergency Proclamation, which the County maintains suspends the typical competitive procurement process required by Hawai‘i Revised Statutes (“HRS”) chapter 103D (“Procurement Law”).
For these 21 contracts and POs, we asked Purchasing for:
1. Any documentation on how the awardee was selected;
2. Reasons the contract was not competitively bid; and
3. Any documentation of such decisions.
Purchasing did not answer any of these questions, and only stated, “[t]he Governor’s proclamation suspends the requirements under HRS 103D and allows for expediting contracts for goods, services, and construction in order to quickly respond to the disaster. Please note that the Governor’s proclamation is still in effect.” ….
Purchasing does not have any policies or procedures for the solicitation of bids or the issuance of awards, contracts, and contract amendments relating specifically to emergency procurement….
Finding 3. Of the two projects identified for review related to RAIN 20, none of the project files included all federally required documents. The County still does not have policies or procedures over preparing for emergencies, how to procure goods and services in emergency situations, or how to differentiate between response and recovery circumstances. …
Of the seven projects reviewed, procurement documents were provided only for three identified by the County as completed: 148295, 148291, and 148411. No evidence was provided that contracts or POs for these projects were reviewed for federal compliance. The County states that the FEMA checklists were not used….
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