Report 2007-108 All Recommendation Responses

Report 2007-108: Department of Water Resources: Its Administration of Grants Under the Flood Protection Corridor Program Needs Improvement (Release Date: November 2007)

Recommendation #1 To: Water Resources, Department of

To provide consistency in its project selection process and to better justify its decisions on selecting future projects, Water Resources should when awarding direct-expenditure grants, select projects in a manner that allows it to justify its project rankings. One way Water Resources could achieve this would be to develop and use a consistent scoring process and use the scores as a basis for making funding decisions.

Recommendation #2 To: Water Resources, Department of

To provide consistency in its project selection process and to better justify its decisions on selecting future projects, Water Resources should adhere to the regulations of the flood protection program requiring a hydrologic study as part of the grant application. If Water Resources believes hydrologic studies are too costly for some grant applicants, it should consider establishing a process to obtain this information or substantial other evidence supporting its decisions before awarding grants. For example, Water Resources could use funds from the flood protection program to pay for a study after preliminary selection, before deciding whether to fund the entire project.

Recommendation #3 To: Water Resources, Department of

To provide consistency in its project selection process and to better justify its decisions on selecting future projects, Water Resources should for proposed projects involving land acquisitions, adhere to the regulations of the flood protection program requiring grant applicants to submit evidence of willing sellers.

Recommendation #4 To: Water Resources, Department of

To provide consistency in its project selection process and to better justify its decisions on selecting future projects, Water Resources should develop a rationale for determining whether scope changes are significant enough to warrant another review of a project?s merits or whether an unfunded project might be a better alternative.

Recommendation #5 To: Water Resources, Department of

To provide consistency in its project selection process and to better justify its decisions on selecting future projects, Water Resources should develop policies and procedures to consistently evaluate whether proposed structural and recreational enhancements conform to the goals of the flood protection program and are the most effective use of funds.

Recommendation #6 To: Water Resources, Department of

Water Resources should follow up with Santee to determine how the city spent its funds.

Recommendation #7 To: Water Resources, Department of

Water Resources should release the unspent portion of allocated funds to the city but only after Santee demonstrates it can use the funds for flood protection purposes, provides an audit report with an accounting of how the city used the $4.75 million previously disbursed, and submits a final inspection report by a registered civil engineer, as the letter of agreement with Santee requires.

Recommendation #8 To: Water Resources, Department of

To effectively monitor projects, Water Resources should develop policies and procedures to ensure that it receives sufficiently detailed and complete progress reports from grantees, with supporting records of expenditures, descriptions of project activities, status of budget and schedule, and key issues to resolve.

Recommendation #9 To: Water Resources, Department of

To effectively monitor projects, Water Resources should develop policies and procedures to ensure that it communicates to staff its expectations for conducting and documenting site visits.

Recommendation #10 To: Water Resources, Department of

To effectively monitor projects, Water Resources should develop policies and procedures to ensure that it establishes expectations for how often staff should communicate with grantees and develops a process to record communications consistently.

Recommendation #11 To: Water Resources, Department of

To effectively monitor projects, Water Resources should develop policies and procedures to ensure that it regularly updates its project budget-tracking sheets to adjust for contract amendments and changes in budgeted tasks and to accurately track funds disbursed to grantees.

Recommendation #12 To: Water Resources, Department of

To effectively monitor projects, Water Resources should develop policies and procedures to ensure that it withholds a percentage of payments to a grantee when appropriate and releases the funds only after it is satisfied that the project is reasonably complete.

Recommendation #13 To: Water Resources, Department of

To comply with reporting requirements for projects it funds under propositions 84 and 1E, and to ensure that its management is kept apprised of key issues, Water Resources should develop a process for reporting project status. This process should include regular reporting of each project?s budget and cost status, progress in meeting the goals and time schedules specified in the grant agreement, and any key events affecting the project.

Recommendation #14 To: Water Resources, Department of

To avoid paying more than fair market value for properties, Water Resources should, before disbursing funds, take steps to ensure that it resolves concerns about the quality of appraisals raised by its staff and General Services, when its advice is sought.

All Recommendations in 2007-108

Agency responses received after June 2013 are posted verbatim.