Muskogee County commissioners on Monday adopted procurement procedures to facilitate their efforts to secure and administer federal grants.
The procedures adopted are set out in the U.S. Code of Federal Regulations. The provisions address administrative requirements, cost principles and audit requirements for entities awarded federal grants.
“We are working on a number of federal grants, and we are supposed to have a special procurement policy in place for purposes of administering those grants,” District 1 Commissioner Ken Doke said. “The folks we are working with for one of those grants suggested that if we aren’t going to have our own thick policy then we ought to at least adopt this uniform guidance … for receiving federal awards.”
Doke and other commissioners agreed it would be better to adopt a procurement policy tailored to the county’s needs and practices. Because that would be a project that could take some time to complete, commissioners agreed that “adopting this would suffice until we have something else in place.”
District 3 Commissioners Kenny Payne said the move does not obligate the county in any way other than the way it administers federal funds. That, he said, is an issue commissioners need to address.
“This has sort of been a point of contention with the state auditor and Muskogee County in the past,” Payne said, referencing the findings of past audits. “This is something that should satisfy the requirements they have questioned in the past.”
Doke said the federal regulations will serve as “an umbrella to cover our procurement policy.” Doke said he has been unable to find another county in Oklahoma that has developed or adopted procurement policies particular to local needs and practices.
“I don’t know how they get around that — federal guidelines say you should have your own policy,” Doke said. “But the folks we are working with on some of these grant agreements said this is something we ought to do, so I think this will be a good, short-term fix.”
