Interim County Administrator Terry Lewis delivered his first report Tuesday, July 26, on his progress rehabilitating the Sarasota County procurement department.

“You’ll be seeing changes with new rules for employees and vendors as well,” he said. In the works is an overhaul of the bidding process.

The effort is guided by two critical reports received during the tenure of former County Administrator Jim Ley, who resigned in late May after irregularities were revealed. A pair of audits released earlier this month by Clerk of the Circuit Court and County Comptroller Karen Rushing are also steering the endeavor.

The four documents contain 263 separate recommendations. Lewis’ memo broke them down by category. About one-quarter are organizational, about one-fifth involve technology and the remainder — 58 percent — are “operational.”

While the focus is on one department, Lewis’ report contains two sentences in bold type: “It is my absolute belief that, in addition to lax oversight of the procurement process, there was — throughout the organization — a clear and disturbing lack of training relating to purchasing. At times, conflicting or ambiguous policies exacerbated the problem for our employees.” The word "lack" is underlined in the original memo.

Lewis’ first report lays no blame. It does lie out a course of action. At least one proposed action reaches outside of county government. “[S]taff is working to ensure appropriate ethics policies and training are implemented. In addition, ethics language in the code will be reviewed and strengthened to increase vendor awareness and compliance,” the report says. “Oaths and notarized affidavits will be required of staff and vendors alike.” Again the bold and italics are from the original.

In other words, Lewis is reaching beyond county staff in his quest for honesty and integrity.

Lewis will require more training, and in some cases certification. Changes to the procurement code are in the works “to clarify policies and procedures.” He is also calling for “centralized control of specifications,” which indirectly reflects suspicions by some vendors that other vendors were writing county specs to benefit their firms.

“We are going to overhaul the bid process,” he told county commissioners Tuesday. “We are on the right road, we have the right people working on it. I’m confident we’re making progress.”

Some of the changes already implemented will increase the procurement department’s workload. His report noted the county is “shifting responsibility for gathering of quotes for purchases between $3,000 and $25,000 from work units to procurement.” For such quotes, there will be a requirement to seek them from local businesses.

Lewis has reduced the number of purchasing cards in circulation to 248 from the 440 in use in April. Monthly expenditures on P-cards is down by more than half to $7.1 million from $15.1 million “[W]e are exploring the establishment of pre-purchase authorization requirements that would require each P-card purchase to be reviewed and approved prior to the transaction being processed."

Oral interviews with candidates to be the next Sarasota County procurement manager begin next week. “The process will be open and transparent,” the memo said. “Since our procurement practices significantly impact the private sector, the school board, the Gulf Coast Builders Exchange each will have a representative on the Oral Board.” Lewis indicated he will make a final decision “immediately following that process.”

The memo indicates two initiatives are still alive — a hotline for tipsters, and an “ethics and compliance official,” AKA a county inspector general. If the old adage “where you stand depends on where you sit” is true, Lewis is offering a high profile. “This individual will report directly to the county administrator and be assigned the office space immediately adjacent to the administrator,” his memo says.