Report 2016-104 Recommendation 8 Responses
Report 2016-104: California Public Utilities Commission: It Should Reform Its Rules to Increase Transparency and Accountability, and Its Contracting Practices Do Not Align With Requirements or Best Practices (Release Date: September 2016)
Recommendation #8 To: Public Utilities Commission
To ensure that its contracting practices align with state requirements and best practices, the CPUC should designate a limited number of project managers for each division at the CPUC, and provide those individuals with training on the CPUC's processes related to contracting, including how to monitor progress of a contractor's work.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022
Administrative Services Division's Procurements & Contracts (P&C) Section has implemented the following:
1. P&C Handbook (corrected from Manual) - Was completed and is currently in the internal P&C Shared drive. This was provided to internal P&C staff, disseminated to external CPUC staff over during the Annual P&C Training and has been added to the external facing SharePoint Site which went live August 2022.
2. Training - External P&C Training began on April 6th, 2022 and ended on June 29th, 2022. This training will occur annually each spring. Each division and all current Contract Managers/Requestors received invites to the training and 193 CPUC staff members have attended the training as of July 2022.
- Completion Date: August 2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021
The Procurements & Contracting (P&C) Section of the CPUC is currently revising the P&C Manual for department wide consumption and updating training to address the Division & Contract Manager (CM)/Project Manager (PM) roles, responsibilities, requirements & statement of work development. We will also be requiring all CM/PM staff to take training & establishing Service Level Agreements with each Division that will outline the number of CM/PM for that division, roles, responsibilities & requirements that must be adhered to.
- Estimated Completion Date: 2/28/2022
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2020
CPUC has developed a PM training that will be offered starting Nov-Dec 2020 and continue until all current and prospective PMs are trained. Initially planned to being April 2020; but this was delayed due to COVID-19.
- Estimated Completion Date: 06/30/2021
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2019
The CPUC will expand training to all Contract managers. CPUC will work on establishing a reasonable timeframe for completion.
- Estimated Completion Date: 3/2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2018
The agency has taken a variety of steps in response to this recommendation, while recognizing balancing the need to have the right technical expertise engaged with contract management tasks. In addition, Energy Division has hired an AGPA to act as a liaison with the agency's Contracts Office. The AGPA has received training from the California Procurement and Contracting Academy at DGS and will be taking additional trainings in the future, such as Scope of Work development and Contract Management training. The AGPA will explain contracting rules and processes to Energy Division's contract managers, and will support them in preparing Contract Packages. The AGPA has also established tracking systems to monitor the progress of establishing, amending and administrating Energy Division contracts.
- Estimated Completion Date: 10/2019
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
In its follow-up response from the prior year, the CPUC indicated that the majority of contract managers are in the Energy Division. In addition to the efforts it describes in this current response, the CPUC will need to take similar action pertaining to its other divisions that use contractors for their projects.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From November 2017
The majority of contract managers are in the Energy Division. The Executive Director and the Energy Director are spinning off an Administrative Unit within Energy to handle the contracting needs of the Division. This had not begun as of yet but is set to begin within the next couple of months.
- Estimated Completion Date: 6/30/2018
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
1-Year Agency Response
The Executive Director and the Division Directors will be working on a plan to eliminate the need for too many contract managers.
- Estimated Completion Date: 12/30/17
- Response Date: September 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending
6-Month Agency Response
Training for all project managers will be done covering the next two months and on an on-going basis. CPUC is continuing to try and develop a strategy with the Division Directors for limiting the number of project managers and better coordination with the contracts office.
- Estimated Completion Date: 6/30/2017
- Response Date: March 2017
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
The Commission continues to develop its model for limiting the number of project managers within the divisions.
- Estimated Completion Date: 6/30/2017
- Response Date: November 2016
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2016-104
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.