Report 2012-105 Recommendations

To ensure that it does not violate provisions of state law that prohibit contracts for services that state employees can perform, Public Health should establish that it has adequate justification to contract under Section 19130 (b), prior to submitting contracts to the Department of General Services (General Services) for approval.

To comply with state contracting laws and policies that protect the State's interest, Public Health should ensure that its staff do not allow contractors to work before the General Services has approved the contracts.

To comply with state contracting laws and policies that protect the State's interest, Public Health should ensure that its staff do not use service orders to circumvent the State's contracting policies.

To comply with state contracting laws and policies that protect the State's interest, Public Health should recoup the overpayment made to the San Diego State University Research Foundation (research foundation), if applicable.

To determine whether the appropriation to administer the Kids' Plates Program is sufficient, Public Health should continue its plans to evaluate the costs of the regional grants Request for Application (RFA) process and its monitoring of the awards for fiscal year 2012–13. If Public Health determines that the appropriation is insufficient, it should seek an amendment to state law.

To comply with the State Contracting Manual, if Public Health chooses to use contractors for the Kids' Plates Program, it should direct its staff to substantiate the expenditures contractors claim. For example, Public Health could ask the contractors to submit for review detailed records substantiating all or a sample of their invoices.

To ensure that it is able to measure its progress toward fulfilling the requirements of the health and safety fund, Public Health should establish performance measurements for the Kids' Plates Program.

To ensure that it is able to measure its progress toward fulfilling the requirements of the health and safety fund, Public Health should periodically assess its progress toward meeting its measureable outcomes.

To ensure that the office complies with the State Contracting Manual, Social Services should direct the office to substantiate the expenditures that grantees claim. For example, the office could ask the grantees to submit for review detailed records for all or a sample of their invoices.

To ensure that the office complies with the State Contracting Manual, Social Services should direct the office to recover the overpayment from the Children's Bureau of Southern California, if applicable.

To ensure that it uses trust fund moneys only for permissible uses, Social Services should direct its internal audits staff to periodically perform reviews of the trust fund expenditures.

To ensure that it uses trust fund moneys only for permissible uses, Social Services should revise its invoicing process to clearly identify the objectives in the scope of work section of its grant agreements and their corresponding funding sources.

To ensure compliance with the state law governing the trust fund that allows it to fund research and demonstration projects that explore the nature and incidence of child abuse and the development of long-term solutions to the problem of child abuse, Social Services should establish procedures to ensure that all grants it awards for research and demonstration projects clearly demonstrate a linkage to the trust fund's requirements.

To ensure that the office complies with the State Contracting Manual, Social Services should direct the office to update its guidelines for grant administration to establish a formal process for reviewing the grantees' progress reports and interim products. This process should include documenting the office's review and assessment of whether the grantees meet the goals, objectives, and measurable outcomes in their grant requirements.

To ensure that the office complies with the State Contracting Manual, Social Services should direct the office to retain the documentary evidence of its review and assessment in the grantee files.

To ensure that its efforts funded by the trust fund are preventing or reducing incidences of child abuse and neglect, Social Services should develop universal performance measurements for the trust fund.

To ensure that its efforts funded by the trust fund are preventing or reducing incidences of child abuse and neglect, Social Services should ensure that the performance measurements are reflected in the grants it awards.

To ensure that its efforts funded by the trust fund are preventing or reducing incidences of child abuse and neglect, Social Services should evaluate the performance measurements annually to assess whether the trust fund's programs and services are effective in reducing incidences of child abuse and neglect.

To ensure compliance with the state law that requires the office to publish certain trust fund information, Social Services should require the office to establish procedures to ensure inclusion on its Web site of all programs and services it funded using the trust fund.

To ensure compliance with the state law that requires the office to publish certain trust fund information, Social Services should require the office to publish on its Web site the amount in the trust fund as of June 30 each year.

To improve the presentation of the information it publishes for the trust fund, Social Services should establish a link that separately provides descriptions of the types of programs and services it funds using the trust fund and the target populations that benefit from the programs.

To improve the presentation of the information it publishes for the trust fund, Social Services should present the amount it disbursed from the trust fund in the prior fiscal year by the amount spent for each program or service.