Top 10 Procurement under Grant Mistakes that Can Lead to Loss of FEMA Public Assistance Funding are:

1. Restricting full and open competition (i.e., placing unreasonable requirements on firms, requiring unnecessary experience, specifying only a “brand name” product,giving an advantage to local firms, etc.).

2. Not performing a detailed price or cost analysis for procurements above $250,000.

3. Engaging in a sole-sourcing (non-competitive) procurement without carefully documenting how the situation has created an urgent need to perform the work sooner than a competitive procurement process would allow.

4. Continuing work under a sole-source contract after the urgent need (see # 3) has ended, instead of transitioning to a competitively procured contract.

5. Not making and documenting efforts to take all “affirmative” steps to solicit small businesses, minority businesses, and woman’s business enterprises.

6. Awarding a “time-and-materials” contract without a ceiling price and without documenting why no other contract type is suitable.

7. Not including the required contract clauses (template is available here or on the PDAT website).

8. Awarding a “cost-plus-percentage-of-cost” or “percentage-of-construction cost” contract.

9. Awarding a contract to contractors that were suspended or debarred (visit www.sam.gov).

10. Not properly documenting all steps of a procurement to maintain a record sufficient to answer questions that could arise months or years later.

‍