SUMMARY
In October 2014 we reported the results of our audit of the Department of Executive Council’s systems to manage contracts. We recommended that the Department of Executive Council:
- document the rationale for contracting and vendor selection
- follow proper contract administration and evaluation processes
- update its contracting policy to deal with situations where one department arranges a contractor for another department
The department has updated its policy and strengthened its contract administration and evaluation processes but needs to make further improvements to support its contracting decisions and assessment of contract rates.
After we completed our field work, management implemented a new contract form that requires staff to provide more thorough documentation to support sole-sourced contract decisions and contract rates.
What we found
We found that the department:
- has updated its contracting policy, including clarifying situations where one department arranges a contract for another department
- has strengthened its contract administration and evaluation procedures
- needs to improve its documentation to support the assessment of the contract rate and to support contracting decisions, including the need to contract and selection of vendors
Overall conclusion
The department has updated its contracting policy and strengthened some of its contracting processes, but further work is needed.