Emergency Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Audit of Health Resources and Services Administration's Award Process for a Contract With Capital Link

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The audit is one of several reviews of procurements by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) and other components of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005. 

The Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and the Health and Human Services Acquisition Regulation (HHSAR) provide, among other things, that HHS agencies award each contract to a responsible party and document compliance with requirements for full and open competition and the determination that the price was fair and reasonable.  

After Hurricanes Katrina and Rita destroyed or damaged a number of federally supported health care centers throughout the gulf coast, primary care associations (PCA) developed recovery plans to reestablish health care in the affected areas.  To support PCAs' recovery planning efforts, HRSA modified an existing contract with Capital Link.  The existing contract obligated Capital Link to provide technical assistance to community health care centers undertaking facility projects.  The modification obligated Capital Link to assess the capital needs of local health care centers and to work with PCAs to develop the capital-related sections of hurricane recovery plans.  Our objective was to determine whether HRSA complied with FAR and HHSAR requirements during the award process involving Capital Link.  HRSA complied with the requirements.