Los Angeles City Controller Wendy Greuel said today an independent review showed a flawed evaluation process in the Los Angeles Community College Dustrict’s hiring of an inspector general.
The board of the Community College District had asked Ms. Greuel to investigate the selection process for the newly created Office of Inspector General following a previous audit by state Controller John Chiang.
“Some of the District’s actions are very troubling,” said Ms. Greuel. “Everyone needs to play by the rules. Clearly, deviations from the procedures hampered the competitive bidding process. LACCD must ensure that taxpayer funds are spent effectively, that proper procedures for contractor selection are adhered to.”
In 2010, the Community College Board authorized the establishment of an Office of Inspector General to oversee the District’s $5.75 billion bond-funded construction program following a series of audits and investigations. More than 10 bids were submitted for the April 2010 request-for-proposals. In October, Policy Masters, Inc. was selected for the contract, despite not having experience in directing audits and investigations or having a work history as a firm, as required by the Request for Proposal.
Initial reviews conducted by Mr. Chiang found that the Community College District ignored its internal procurement rules and guidelines in the selection. Ms. Greuel reached similar conclusions. She determined the original request-for-proposal was vaguely worded, leading to significant confusion among applicants about the deliverables expected for the project. In one instance, the District issued a directive to bidders that they would be expected to provide a fulltime consultant to serve as Inspector General. The directive was issued just three business days before the proposals were due, resulting in insufficient time for a bidder to arrange for a full-time senior level consultant with sufficient experience and qualifications.
Additionally, the firm with the highest score on its initial proposal was not even chosen as one of the finalists to advance to the interview stage of the process.
“It's clear District officials mismanaged this effort,” said Board member Miguel Santiago. “The Board has taken aggressive steps to tighten policies and procedures used in all of our request-for-proposal processes to ensure this never happens again. The Board will consider further actions after more thoroughly reviewing the Controller's audit.”
Ms. Greuel’s review found numerous other irregularities in the interview process, including: • The District failed to actively vet potential conflicts of interest.
• The applications were not evaluated in a consistent or methodological manner.
• The Deputy Chancellor chose different panelists for the proposal review process and the interview process. As a result, those conducting the interviews did not have full information about all bidders or how the four finalists compared to other bidders.
The two finalists made significant changes to their proposals between the first and second round of interviews, without clear evidence of permission from Community College District management.
Ms. Greuel, a candidate for Mayor of Los Angeles in next March’s election, urged the Board of Trustees to take a series of steps, including revising its policies and procedures, to help prevent the district from entering into another flawed RFP processes.
For more information, see Ms. Greuel’s site: http://controller.lacity.org/index.htm.
