Free meals or free exercise at MoCo agencies

It's hard to decide. Would it be better to work for Montgomery County Public Schools and get a credit card to use for free lunches and dinners - or - would it be better to work for the Montgomery County Register of Wills and get a free exercise class? Meals or exercise? Can't decide...

But either way, neither agency has to worry about dealing with those messy competitive bid procurement procedures! Phew!

Today's Audit released from the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits brings us the following in the report on the Montgomery County Register of Wills:

Procurement

Finding 1

The Office paid $35,500 to a fitness instructor to provide training for the Office’s employees. We question the use of public funds for this purpose.

Analysis


The Office paid $35,500 during the audit period to a fitness instructor to provide training for the Office’s employees, after normal business hours. We question the use of public funds for this purpose since such services are not routinely budgeted nor procured by State government agencies.
Additionally, this procurement was not competitively bid, a contract was not executed, and the purchase was not submitted to the Comptroller of Maryland for
approval, as required by State Procurement Regulations and the Procurement Procedures for Registers of Wills issued by the Office of the Comptroller. We were advised by Office management that, despite the requirement that all procurements exceeding $2,500 receive approval from the Comptroller, the procurement for this service was not submitted to the Comptroller for review and approval because the payments were individually less than $2,500 (generally $1,000 per month). However, the value of the services under this arrangement dictate whether approval is needed, not the individual payment amounts.

Update 10/29/09: WTOP's Kate Ryan reports on Audit