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Audit Objective

Determine whether Town of Pawling (Town) officials used a competitive process to procure goods and services.

Key Findings

Town officials did not always use a competitive process to procure goods and services. Officials did not:

• Develop detailed procedures for procuring professional services in their procurement policy.
• Seek competition for professional services obtained from eight service providers paid $342,770 of the 10 professional services tested.
• Competitively bid for sanitation services totaling $186,821.

Key Recommendations

• Revise the procurement policy to provide a clear method for procuring professional services.
• Procure professional services by soliciting proposals or quotes at reasonable intervals.
• Comply with the Town’s procurement policy and competitive bidding requirements when making purchases.

Town officials disagreed with our findings and recommendations. Appendix B includes our comments on issues raised in the Town’s response letter.