In 2008 the Board of County Commissioners adopted Resolution 08-112 directing a team to recommend improvements that would strengthen the oversight of financial and business stability of its personal services contractors. This was a response to recurring Multnomah County Auditor’s findings on the administration of large human services contracts, the most recent being July of 2008. As a result of the resolution a multi-Department, 14 person, Contract Action Team (CAT) was formed and their actions culminated in the CAT Report. That report was adopted for implementation by the Board in January 2009.
The CAT Report’s recommendation for strengthening risk management with Human Services contracts was - Assess risk for each contract to appropriately scale the contracting process. The summary recommended the development of tools to: 1) help assess risk, 2) guide procurement decisions, and 3) indicate appropriate monitoring level and frequency. The recommendations were to apply the full risk management plan to contracts over $150,000 and that the systems was scalable to contracts under that amount as an option.
