Monday, November 30, 2009

Verifying Debarment Status on Federally Funded Projects

If a public agency receives federal funding for any project, one of the requirements is that the agency check to ensures that the selected vendor, contractor, or consultant is not debarred or suspended from doing business with the federal government.

It is easy to check the federal debarment status of a company. Visit http://www.epls.gov.

Make sure you print out a copy of the web page showing that the company is not debarred and keep it in your contracting file for when you are audited.


The City of Yakima (Washington) was recently audited by the Washington State Auditor's Office who issued a finding for Yakima's failure to check the debarment status of a number of firms. To read the audit finding, click here.

Pacific County (Washington) also faced a similar audit finding from the Washington State Auditor's Office. Click here to read the audit.

Make sure your agency has a clear procedure for ensuring that the status of vendors, contractors, and consultants on federally funded projects is checked before entering into a contract with them.

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