Dear Colleagues,

The California State Auditor yesterday released its audit findings on the University of California (UC) contracting practices. The review was conducted at the request of the state legislature.

UC President Janet Napolitano has expressed appreciation for the auditor’s recommendations, which recognized the strengths of UC’s contracting practices while also identifying areas for improvement. UCSF supports President Napolitano’s position and is fully committed to working with her office towards continuous improvement and establishment of effective best practices.

The full report, which includes President Napolitano’s comments, can be read here https://www.auditor.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2016-125.1.pdf.

The audit included a review of several UCSF service contracts, including a contract to outsource a portion of our IT services. The conclusion was that, overall, our contracts are substantially in compliance with UC policy and guidelines and followed UC’s collective bargaining agreements.

In regard to the IT contract, the audit report found that, per UC guidelines, we appropriately conducted a cost analysis “to justify the business and financial necessity” for the contracting decision, but that we did not provide a formal, written notification to the Office of the President (OP) justifying the outsourcing decision. The report noted that both UCSF and OP believed that an in-person presentation to OP by UCSF had met that particular guideline. Finally, the audit report found that all personnel policies had been satisfied.

In those limited instances where the audit found that a UCSF...