A Performance Audit
An Audit Report on Scoring and Evaluation of Selected Procurements at the Health and Human Services Commission
July 2018
Summary Analysis
The Health and Human Services Commission (Commission) did not establish the controls necessary to ensure that its evaluation processes to review and score vendor proposals for major contract and grant procurements provided reliable, accurate, and complete information. Without adequate controls, the Commission cannot ensure that its award decisions are sufficiently supported. Auditors identified errors in the evaluations performed for all 28 procurements that were tested, which included the Commission’s cancelled procurement for the Children’s Health Insurance Program Rural Service Area. The 28 procurements selected have an estimated award value of $4.6 billion.
For 5 (18 percent) of the 28 procurements, with an estimated value of $3.4 billion, auditors identified significant evaluation scoring errors and missing documentation. As a result, auditors could not determine whether the evaluation scores that supported the award recommendations for those five procurements were accurate. Of those five procurements:
- Three procurements had executed contracts with an estimated value of more than $3.0 billion.
- One procurement, with an estimated value of $45.7 million, did not have an executed contract as of May 2018.
- One procurement was cancelled that had an estimated value of $350.0 million.
For the remaining 23 procurements, the errors identified did not have a significant effect on the award recommendations. Those 23 procurements had awards totaling an estimated $1.2 billion.
Auditors identified errors in the Health and Human Services Commission’s (Commission) calculations of evaluation scores and weaknesses in its management of the evaluation processes used to review and score vendor proposals for 28 major contract and grant procurements.
Auditors tested 28 procurements the Commission awarded and considered for award from January 1, 2015, through March 31, 2018, that totaled $4.6 billion. Table 1 summarizes the errors, weaknesses, and recommendations related to the Commission’s scoring and evaluation of the 28 selected procurements.
Table 2 lists each of the procurements that auditors tested. The procurements are listed according to the type of good or service and are listed in chronological order in each section starting with the most recent date. The Health and Human Services Commission (Commission) either awarded or considered an award for these procurements between January 1, 2015, and March 31, 2018.
The findings and recommendations presented in this report are similar to findings and recommendations previously reported to the Health and Human Services Commission (Commission) from prior audits of the Commission’s contracts. The contracts that were previously audited were not reviewed for this audit. Table 3 lists those prior audits, including the name of the contract audited, a summary of the findings, and recommendations related to the issues in this report.
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