Audit  Audit of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners

In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners (MBLC) for the period July 1, 2015 through June 30, 2017. In this performance audit, we followed up on issues identified in our previous audit of MBLC (No. 2013-0165-3S) to determine what measures, if any, MBLC’s management had taken to address those issues. During the prior audit, we examined MBLC’s monitoring of library construction projects, the timeliness of the submission of monthly reports on library construction projects to MBLC, MBLC’s reviewing of contractor certification files, MBLC’s documentation of formal site visits to sub-grantees, and the adequacy of MBLC’s internal control plan (ICP).

During our current audit, we found that MBLC had taken measures to fully address only one of the four issues we identified in our prior audit. Specifically, in our prior audit, we found that MBLC had not required municipalities that had been awarded Massachusetts Public Library Construction Program (MPLCP) grants to view contractor certification files at the Division of Capital Asset Management and Maintenance (DCAMM) for the responsible general contractors who submitted the lowest eligible bids before making a final determination for construction work on their library projects. Review of certification files allows municipalities to further substantiate bidders’ job performance on prior state projects and assess their ability to provide project services in a timely and professional manner. During our current audit, we found that MBLC had updated Section 6.09 1(b)(3)(b) of Title 605 of the Code of Massachusetts Regulations to require municipalities that have been awarded MPLCP grants to review the DCAMM contractor certification files of the lowest responsible eligible bidders for general contract work before final contractor selection.

MBLC has not taken measures to fully address the three other issues we previously identified. Below is a summary of our findings and recommendations, with links to each page listed.

 A PDF copy of the audit of the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners is available here.