Agenda Item AGENDA STAFF REPORT ASR Control 25-000702
MEETING DATE:	10/14/25
legal entity taking action:	Board of Supervisors
board of supervisors district(s):	All Districts
SUBMITTING Agency/Department:	County Executive Office (Approved)
Department contact person(s):	Aggie Alonso (714) 834-5442
	Jose A. Olivo (714) 834-5509

Subject: Forensic Audit Contract

ceo CONCUR

County Counsel Review

Clerk of the Board

Concur

No Legal Objection

Discussion

3 Votes Board Majority

Budgeted: N/A

Current Year Cost: N/A

Annual Cost: N/A

Staffing Impact:

# of Positions:

Sole Source: No

Current Fiscal Year Revenue: N/A

Funding Source: N/A	County Audit in last 3 years: No
Levine Act Review Completed: Yes

Prior Board Action: 9/23/2025 #S34B, 12/3/2024 #37

RECOMMENDED ACTION(S):

Select an independent external audit firm from the top three scoring proposals to conduct a forensic audit of all contracts funded by the American Rescue Plan Act, Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Mental Health Services Act, and the General Fund that were established between January 2019 and August 2024.

Authorize the County Procurement Officer or Deputized designee to enter into negotiations with the selected firm and return to the Board of Supervisors with the proposed agreement for approval.

SUMMARY:

Approval of the County Procurement Officer or authorized Deputy to enter into negotiations with the selected firm will allow the forensic audit of all contracts funded by American Rescue Plan Act, Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, Mental Health Services Act, and the General Fund that were established between January 2019 and August 2024, as directed by the Board of Supervisors at its December 3, 2024, meeting.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

On December 3, 2024, the Board of Supervisors’ (Board) directed the Internal Audit Department (IAD) to hire, pursuant to the Contract Policy Manual, an independent external audit firm to conduct a forensic audit of all contracts established between January 2019 and August 2024. This audit will include, but not be limited to, contracts within the County Executive Office, Health Care Agency, OC Community Resources and the Social Services Agency. The audit scope will include the review for compliance with the Contract Policy Manual and all applicable procurement-related statutes, and prioritize the review of Human Services and Sole Source contracts funded by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, Mental Health Services Act (MHSA), and the General Fund. This external audit shall not interfere with any of the ongoing investigations or litigation against former Supervisor Andrew Do or any of the parties involved. The directive specifies that upon completion of the report, the selected firm shall present their findings and recommendations publicly at a Board of Supervisors meeting or public forum.

On September 23, 2025, the Board directed IAD to submit the top three scoring proposals to the Board for their review and selection of a firm. Below are details of the proposal evaluation process and top three proposals.

Proposal Evaluation Process

On June 27, 2025, the County released a Request for Proposals (RFP) soliciting proposals from qualified firms to conduct the forensic audit. The County received ten proposals by the submission deadline of July 18, 2025.

IAD established an Evaluation Committee comprised of three County department heads and two public members of the Audit Oversight Committee with relevant subject matter expertise. The Evaluation Committee evaluated the ten proposals in the following areas, which accounted for 60 percent of the total proposal score:

Firm’s Background, Qualifications & Experience (30 percent)

Quality/Effectiveness of Work Plan/Project Approach/Compliance with County Model Contract (30 percent)

In addition to the Evaluation Committee’s scoring, the County also awarded points based on the firm’s cost proposal, which accounted for 40 percent of the total proposal score. The County separately conducts the cost scoring, in accordance with County practice, which awards the maximum number of points to the firm with the lowest cost proposal.

Proposal Scoring Results

Consistent with the Board’s direction on September 23, 2025, the following three firms with the top scoring proposals are submitted to the Board for review and selection of one firm to conduct the forensic audit: Baker Tilly Advisory Group (Baker Tilly), CRI Advisors, LLC (CRI), and Weaver & Tidwell, LLP (Weaver & Tidwell). The final ranking for these proposals is based on a combination of the Evaluation Committee’s ranking and the County’s cost ranking.

Evaluation Committee Ranking. After review of each firms’ qualifications, experience, work plan, approach, and model contract compliance, the points awarded by the Evaluation Committee resulted in the following ranking: Baker Tilly 9th, CRI 1st, and Weaver & Tidwell 2nd. This ranking was then adjusted to exclude the highest and lowest scores for each proposal, in accordance with County policy, which changed Baker Tilly’s ranking to 7th, but did not change the other firms’ ranking.

County Cost Ranking. The County awarded points based on each firms’ cost proposal that resulted in the following cost ranking: Baker Tilly 1st, CRI 5th, and Weaver & Tidwell 4th.

Final Ranking. The final ranking combines the Evaluation Committee ranking (after the high/low) and the County cost ranking. The following are the results of the final ranking: Baker Tilly 1st, CRI 2nd, and Weaver & Tidwell 3rd.

See Table 1 below for a summary of these results. Also see Attachment B for the scoring results of all proposals.

Table 1

Contractor	Cost Proposal Amount	Evaluation Committee Ranking: Background, Qualifications & Experience / Work Plan & Approach / Model Contract1		Cost Ranking	Final Ranking
		Before High / Low	After High / Low2
Baker Tilly Advisory Group	$498,750	9	7	1	1
CRI Advisors	$1,981,650	1	1	5	2
Weaver & Tidwell	$1,383,250	2	2	4	3

1 Baker Tilly requested exceptions to the Model Contract. CRI Advisors and Weaver Tidwell did not request any exceptions to the Model Contract.

2 In accordance with County policy, the adjusted ranking reflects the exclusion of the highest and lowest scores for each proposal.

FINANCIAL IMPACT:

N/A

STAFFING IMPACT:

N/A

REVIEWING AGENCIES:

Internal Audit

ATTACHMENT(S):

Attachment A – Request for Proposal No. 017-2804501-RB
Attachment B – Final Summary of Evaluators Scoring
Attachment C – Final Individual Scoring Sheets
Attachment D – Board Directive from December 3, 2024