(The Center Square) — A recent audit of Florida’s Office of Insurance Regulation revealed issues with employee contracts, contract management by unqualified personnel and a lack of contract reporting.
The Office of Insurance Regulation is responsible for all activities concerning insurers, including rates, licensing, issuance of certificates of authority, and administrative services. The OIR is established within the Department of Financial Services Commission and has a separate budget that is not subject to control, supervision, or direction from the department, and was appropriated a $34.7 million budget by the Legislature in fiscal year 2022-23.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency was given the task of expanding its telework for employees after Gov. Ron DeSantis authorized temporary telework for employees in the OIR — a temporary agreement with specific terms and conditions, including the equipment that would be used in telework, work hours and location and remote network services needed. Supervisors were responsible for signing the temporary telework agreements.
The Auditor General found that the temporary agreements for six employees were missing the details that the remote network services needed. Another three employees’ temporary agreements were not signed by either a supervisor or an approved authority. Also, missing signatures were the equipment inventory forms of two employees.
In response, OIR management stated that the information was missing because employees were not sure what remote network services would be needed. Management further stated that the primary goal was to keep employees safe during the pandemic, and this contributed to the oversights. OIR management also indicated that a list of equipment used by employees has now been developed to promote proper accountability over equipment.
Another issue was effective contract management. According to state law, state agencies must keep comprehensive records of contracts, and must designate an employee to enforce contract performance requirements, and the terms and conditions in the contract. The designated employee must also complete training for the role conducted by the chief financial officer — something that must be done within six months of the employee taking the role of the contract manager.
The audit showed that there were instances where the agency had failed to maintain a complete list of all applicable OIR contracts from March 2020 to February 2022, providing various incomplete contract listings. Despite the OIR already having five contract managers – an employee with no applicable certification was managing a contract worth $2 million with Florida International University for the maintenance of the Florida Public Hurricane Model.
The Department of Financial Services Commission established an online tool called the Florida Accountability Contract Tracking System, which provides users and the public access to state contracts and grants financial information. State law requires that each contract or grant executed must be uploaded to FACTS within 30 days. This includes information about contracting entities, procurement methods, contract beginning and end dates, prices, and the type of commodities purchased.
FACTS data was analyzed by the AG, and it was found that between July 2020 and February 2022, the OIR had not posted the required contract information in a timely manner for seven contracts, taking an average of 48 days longer than the required 30 days.
OIR management stated that since the audit, office policies and procedures have been updated.
This article First appeared in the center square