Report 2022-120 Recommendation 1 Responses

Report 2022-120: Orange County Power Authority: Increased Board Oversight Is Needed to Improve Its Operations (Release Date: February 2023)

Recommendation #1 To: Orange County Power Authority

To ensure that OCPA acts in its customers' best interests when contracting for services, by September 2023 OCPA's board should strengthen its procurement processes by directing staff to follow its policy that prohibits splitting purchases into multiple purchases if doing so results in contracts for amounts that are less than the relevant procurement limits for the amount of the combined purchase.

60-Day Agency Response

Staff has developed an OCPA RFP Evaluation Template to document process of soliciting, reviewing, and evaluating proposals, as well as the results of proposal evaluations and vendor selection. The purpose of this template is to reinforce the agency's procurement processes in accordance with its policy, which prohibits the splitting of purchases.

California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Fully Implemented

On June 21, 2023, OCPA's board approved a revised version of OCPA's procurement policy. In doing so, it reaffirmed the policy's prohibition against staff's splitting purchases in order avoid competitive procurement requirements.

All Recommendations in 2022-120

Agency responses received are posted verbatim.