Emergency Response to Hurricanes Katrina and Rita: Audit of Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration's Award Process for a Contract With Westover Consultants, Inc.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

The audit is one of several reviews of procurements by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) 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.  

As part of HHS's hurricane relief operations, SAMHSA awarded a contract to Westover Consultants, Inc. (Westover).  The contract obligated Westover to provide behavioral health services to hurricane victims   Our objective was to determine whether SAMHSA complied with FAR and HHSAR requirements during the award process involving Westover.  SAMHSA complied with the requirements.