Ridgefield – A report from the Washington State Auditor’s Office released Thursday criticized the city of Ridgefield for not having adequate internal controls to ensure compliance with federal suspension and debarment requirements.
The city used $696,436 in federal loan funds last year to hire a contractor to construct a new reservoir, well and transmission system at the Interstate 5 junction. Per federal regulations, the city must make sure any contractor hired to do work using at least $25,000 in federal money isn’t suspended or debarred from doing business with the federal government. Per the report, the city didn’t make sure the contractor for the work wasn’t suspended or debarred until after the contract was awarded.
“Our internal control found it before any money had been requested from the federal government,” City Manager Steve Stuart said.
Stuart added the problem was corrected before the audit, and moving forward, the city has added language to contracts to ensure those items are checked for in time and added steps to checklists addressing the Excluded Parties List System review process.
