OIG No. 21-10: OIG Contract Allocation Fee ReportJoseph M. Centorino, Inspector General
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
PROJECT:
Honorable Mayor and Members of the City Commission
Joseph Centorino, Inspector General
December 8, 2020
OIG Contract Allocation Fee Report
OIG Audit No. 21-10
The residents of Miami Beach overwhelmingly approved an amendment to the City Charter
in November 2018, creating Article IX, which created the City of Miami Beach Office of the
Inspector General (OIG); established the functions of the office; provided the Inspector
General with the power to subpoena witnesses, administer oaths, and require production of
records, in order to conduct its investigations; and provided that the Inspector General's
appointment, term, functions, authority, and powers shall be further established by
Ordinance. As a result, Ordinance No. 2019-4239 was adopted on February 23, 2019, which
implemented the provisions of the newly created Article IX of the City Charter.
In addition, the Mayor and City Commission desired to establish a dedicated fund for the
activities and operations of the Office of the Inspector General with allocations to the OIG
fund consisting of a specified percentage of the contract expenditures made under all
applicable contracts. In response, the Mayor and City Commission of the City passed and
adopted Ordinance No. 2020-4325 on January 15, 2019 creating City Code Section 2-378,
which among other provisions, included the following:
• After taking into account both historical and anticipated estimates of expenditures,
the amount allocated to the OIG fund was lowered from 1.5% to one half of one
percent (.5%) of the contract amounts expended by the City pursuant to all City
contracts, including contract amendments or change orders except revenue-
generating contracts, auditing contracts and others.
• The total amount allocated to the OIG fund for any individual City contract shall be
capped and shall not exceed $50,000.
• Monies placed in the OIG fund shall be exclusively dedicated for the operations and
activities of the OIG and for no other purposes provided the monies are expended in
accordance with Florida law and City Code Section 2-256(i).
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• The provisions of City Code Section 2-378 shall not apply to any contract entered
into prior to April 1, 2020, or to any competitive solicitation issued prior to April 1,
2020.
These terms differ from the original intent expressed, which was to more closely follow Miami-
Dade County OIG's dedicated funding source which receives their funding from a surcharge
that is paid by the vendor. Although the Inspector General prefers the Miami-Dade County
model because it directly involves the City contractors in the process and ensures their awareness
of the OIG's oversight, the Finance Department stated that it cannot be implemented by the City
due to technical considerations. Consequently, the OIG is funded by the .5% contract allocation
fee paid by the applicable City departments and not by the vendors with the General Fund used
to pay for any shortages.
The City's Office of Management and Budget (0MB) staff initially presented information to
the other departments concerning the OIG's funding at the January 15, 2020 Budget Kick-
Off meeting. This initial notice was followed up with a February 18, 2020 email sent to all
City departments requesting that the applicable funds be set aside no later than February 24,
2020. 0MB staff worked with each department to identify applicable contracts and to
estimate the potential fee revenue, which was moved to an internal service charge account
as a budgeted amount. These internal projections were knowingly overstated as they were
based on all known expenditures at the time and did not consider that only those where the
competitive solicitation and/or the contracts were entered into prior to April 1, 2020 were to
be included. Also, no one could have foreseen the devastating impact of the Covid-19 virus
and the upcoming reduction in contract expenditures.
As the fiscal year was winding down and an accurate OIG contract allocation fee was desired,
OIG staff met with the Office of Budget and Performance Improvement Director and the City's
Financial Officer on August 12 and 18, 2020, as they requested assistance in reviewing the
department submissions (templates and backup) for accuracy and to identify any necessary
follow-up with the corresponding departments. As a result, the Budget and Performance
Improvement Director sent an August 19, 2020 email to all City departments instructing them
to review their figures and update the actual amount spent for the 2019/20 fiscal year and to
calculate their final OIG fee and to send all the supporting documentation to the OIG. 0MB
staff sent out several subsequent reminder emails as the designated October 9, 2020 due
date approached.
0MB and OIG staff both received numerous phone calls and emails from departments asking
for clarification related to the requirements of Section 2-378. A total of 18 departments
provided the information requested to OIG staff by October 23, 2020 as the remaining City
departments did not respond.
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The information received from each of these 18 responding City departments was then
compared to the listing of all known applicable contracts that satisfy City Code Section 2-
378's criteria as prepared by the Procurement Department. Any noted differences were then
reviewed with the affected City department(s) until a final determination was reached as to
their eligibility.
For the remaining City departments that did not respond to any of OMB's emails, OIG staff
based their calculations on the Procurement Department's contract listing. If none were
present in the listing, then it was assumed that they did not have any applicable amounts
subject to the OIG contract allocation fee.
Conclusion
After reviewing all the information received prior to October 23, 2020, it was determined that
11 contracts were subject to the OIG contract allocation fee for the 2019/20 fiscal year and
that the OIG fund is due $3,475 as shown in the table below.
FY 2020
OIG OIG
FY 2020 Surcho Surchar
Actual ge
Cost Expending rge ($50 K
Vendor Name Department Full Munis Account Fund Center Object res Cap)
(528) HYDRA SERVICE {S INC Public Works 427.0427.000674.29.422.000.00.00.00. 427 0427 000674 97,973 0.5% 490
(660) XY\EM WATER SOLUTIONS US.A., INC Public Works 427.0427-000674.29.422.000.00.00.00. 427 0427 000674 259,504 0.5% 1,298
(660) XYLEM WATER SOLUTIONS U.S.A., INC. Public Works 425.0420.000343-29.421-513.00-00.00 425 0420 000343 43,039 0.5% 215
(1727) FOTECH ENVIRONMENTAL, LLC Public Works 427.0427.000325.29.413.517.00.00.00 427 0427 000325 183,920 0.5% 920
(1 508) ASTERIA EDUCATION, INC Organizational Development Performance Initiatives 177.6881-000343-16-400-592.00.00.00- 177 6881 000343 12,500 0.5% 63
(1541) MUSEUM OF SCIENCE Organizational Development Performance Initiatives 1776881-000343-16.400-592.00.00.00- 177 6881 000343 12,000 0.5% 60
(14534/ ACCELA INC Information Technology 550.0630000325.14.413-582.0000.00- 550 0630 000325 6,060 0.5% 30
) DECON ENVIRONMENTAL & ENGINEERING, INC Property Management 520-1720.000342.29.413.592.0000.00. 520 1720 000342 14,631 0.5% 73
(52850) UNCOIN ROAD BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT D Property Management 168-1124.000349-20.401.595.00.00.00 168 1124 000349 48,667 0.5% 243
(51177) EQUAL LEVEL INC Procurement 011-0620.000358.17400-582.00.00.00- 011 0620 000358 10,750 0.5% 54
(3081) CSA SERVICE SOLUTIONS, LLC (1 220) FIRE RESCUE 011.1220000342.19.401-505.00.00.00 011 1220 000342 6,015 0.5% 30
3,475
There may have been additional contracts that were excluded, in which the OIG fee is
applicable, but no information was received from either the corresponding City department
or it did not appear on the Procurement Department's provided listing. However, the OIG
believes that any additional amounts due would be minimal and would not justify the
additional work required.
Because the OIG allocation fee was implemented mid-year during FY 2020 and the impact was
limited to applicable contracts entered into after April 1, 2020, it only generated $3,475. This
amount, while low, is not problematic because the FY 2020 Budget did not include any revenue
to the new OIG Fund from the allocation fee. The goal was to put the allocation fee mechanism
in place to hopefully realize $550,000 of allocation fees in the FY 2021 Budget. As a result of the
analysis in FY 2020, it appears that much of the current City annual spending is from contracts
negotiated prior to April 1, 2020. Also, the low amount collected and the amount of administrative
work necessary has led to several discussions between the OIG and the Administration regarding
the efficiency of the allocation fee. At this point in time, we will likely continue with the current
allocation fee mechanism through the end of FY 2021 and consider other options for the FY 2022
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budget development process such as terminating the contract allocation fee, replacing the
revenue from the fee with a transfer from the General Fund as originally budgeted when the OIG
was created, or explore the creation of an internal service fund similar to other internal services
such as IT, Fleet, Central Services, Property Management, and Risk Management.
Mark Cooi@@e. cnerf@ior
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Datée 7
1-08 -2020
Date
cc: Jimmy L. Morales, City Manager
John Woodruff, Chief Financial Officer
Tameka Otto Stewart, Budget and Performance Improvement Director
Alex Denis, Procurement Department Director
OFFICE OF THE INSPECTOR GENERAL, City of Miomi Beach
1130 Washington Avenue, 6" Floor, Miami Beach, FL 33139
Tel: 305.673.7020 • Fox: 305.587.2401 • Hotline: 786.897.1111
Email: CityofMiamiBeachOIG@miamibeachfl.gav
Website: www.mbinspectorgeneral.com
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