Report 2019-121 Recommendation 3 Responses
Report 2019-121: California Department of Food and Agriculture: Poor Management Threatens the Success of the Pet Lover's Specialized License Plate Program (Release Date: March 2020)
Recommendation #3 To: Food and Agriculture, Department of
In order to ensure a fair and defensible grant award process for the Pet Lover's program, Food and Agriculture should immediately adopt and begin following policies and procedures that direct its staff to select the highest-ranked applications to receive grant awards, and document the reasons for these selections.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2022
In the six-month, one-year, and 2021 annual agency responses submitted to the California State Auditor, CDFA indicated that this recommendation had been fully implemented. The reviewer score sheets provided to the California State Auditor in response to recommendation 2 demonstrate that the highest ranked proposals were recommended for funding. Copies of the published project abstracts that demonstrate the highest scored proposals were funded have also been provided via email to the California State Auditor.
- Completion Date: March 2021
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Fully Implemented
Food and Agriculture provided evidence that it adopted and began following policies and procedures that direct its staff to select the highest-ranked applications to receive grant awards and to document the reasons for these selections.
Annual Follow-Up Agency Response From October 2021
In the one-year agency response submitted to the California State Auditor on March 19, 2021, CDFA indicated that this recommendation had been fully implemented. CDFA has developed and adopted policies and procedures that ensure the funding recommendation for the Secretary of CDFA's approval is based solely on highest average technical review score. For the 2020 and 2021 Pet Lover's programs both funding recommendations and grant awards were based solely on highest average score. As with Recommendations 1 and 2, it appears that the California State Auditor has not assessed CDFA's six-month response nor published and assessed the one-year agency response. We look forward to timely acceptance of this response or any feedback from the California State Auditor so that we may formally resolve this recommendation.
- Completion Date: March 2021
California State Auditor's Assessment of Annual Follow-Up Status: Pending
Although Food and Agriculture developed procedures that direct its staff to select the highest-ranked applications to receive grant awards, and document the reasons for these selections, it did not provide evidence that it has begun following those procedures as we recommended. Until it does so, we will continue to assess this recommendation implementation status as pending.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
1-Year Agency Response
The Pet Lover's procedures manual directs CDFA staff to develop a funding recommendation for the Secretary of CDFA's approval based solely on highest average technical review score. In 2020 the highest scored proposals were selected for funding based on the average score of multiple reviewers. The 2021 Pet Lover's funding recommendation is based solely on highest average score.
- Completion Date: March 2021
- Response Date: March 2021
California State Auditor's Assessment of 1-Year Status: Pending
Although Food and Agriculture developed procedures that direct its staff to select the highest-ranked applications to receive grant awards, and document the reasons for these selections, it did not provide evidence that it has begun following those procedures as we recommended.
- Auditee did not substantiate its claim of full implementation
- Auditee did not address all aspects of the recommendation
6-Month Agency Response
As above, CDFA is developing a formal procedure manual for Pet Lover's. During the 2019 Pet Lover's program, one highly scored proposal was not funded, an error which CDFA rectified prior to the conclusion of the audit report. In 2020 the highest scored proposals were selected for funding based on the average score of multiple reviewers. Multiple layers of internal review were integrated into the process to prevent any potential oversights or errors. This process will continue in future years.
- Estimated Completion Date: 11/15/2020
- Response Date: September 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of 6-Month Status: Pending
60-Day Agency Response
The department indicated it will respond at the six-month mark.
- Estimated Completion Date: tbd
- Response Date: August 2020
California State Auditor's Assessment of 60-Day Status: Pending
All Recommendations in 2019-121
Agency responses received are posted verbatim.