EARLY CHILDHOOD ACADEMY PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOLNon-Profit

D.C. School Choice Incentive Program: SOAR Act - Public Facilities CFDA# 84.370C Criteria and Condition: In accordance with the procurement standards as promulgated under Section 200.320 of 2 CFR Chapter 1, Part 200 Subpart D, Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards, as well as code section 402 and 403 of the District of Columbia Procurement Practices Reform Act of 2010, contracts with an estimated cost value of greater than $250,000 are required to be solicited through a competitive proposal process. Under the competitive proposal process, the following requirements apply: ? Requests for proposals must be publicized and must identify all evaluation factors and their relative importance. ? Bids must be solicited from an adequate number of qualified sources. ? The organization must have a written method for conducting technical evaluations of the proposals received and for selecting recipients. ? Contracts must be awarded to the responsible firm whose proposal is most advantageous to the program, with price and other factors considered. The Early Childhood Academy contracted with a construction company to install an HVAC system with the use of $750,000 in federal dollars, however the contract was not publicized prior to award. Questioned Cost: $0 Context: During the year ended June 30, 2019, the Early Childhood Academy Public Charter School commenced the construction phase of a rehabilitation project relating to the building of a new education facility. The engineering firm approached seven (7) separate construction companies and requested that each provide a bid for the construction of the Charter School, which included the HVAC system. These construction companies each provided a formal bid, and representatives of the engineering firm and the Charter School evaluated each of the proposals. Through this evaluation, the entire contract was awarded to the company that was deemed to be most advantageous to the project with price and all factors considered. Although the procurement of these services followed the requirements of the Uniform Guidance, the contract was not publicly advertised. Cause: Construction contractors that were known to have experience in the building of schools were contacted through means other than publicly advertising, resulting in a total of seven companies responding to the request for proposal. At the time the bidding and evaluation process was occurring, the Early Childhood Academy Public Charter School had not yet been notified that they were going to be awarded a federal public facilities grant. When the grant was awarded for the purpose of conducting the work for the HVAC system, the project managers did not go back and publicize that piece of the project. Effect: Federal procurement standards have been established to ensure that all procurement actions are conducted in a manner to ensure, to the maximum extent practical that the solicitation and award of a procurement transaction is most advantageous to both the federal government and the Early Childhood Academy. For this to be achieved, the advertising of the request for proposal promotes open competition without boundaries. When contracts are not publicly advertised there is no guarantee that the federal government has received the most advantageous award possible. Recommendation: We recommend for future federal procurement contracts resulting in a cost greater than $250,000, that the Charter School publicly advertise in the D.C. Register as well as at least one newspaper of general circulation. Views of Responsible Official: The Early Childhood Academy Public Charter School agrees with the proposed recommendation above. For all future procurement contracts that result in a cost of greater than $250,000, including already planned renovations and other construction projects, the Charter School will ensure that the project managers and engineers are aware that the project is being funded by a federal award and will appropriately publicly advertise the contract.