External Independent Auditing Services

The School Board of Polk County, Florida issued a Request for Proposals (RFP 043-PLA-0420) to procure external independent auditing services from qualified, experienced certified public accounting firms. The procurement sought proposals for a five-year contract period covering fiscal years ending June 30, 2020 through June 30, 2024, with the potential that the Office of the Auditor General may provide services for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2021. Required services include annual financial and compliance audits conducted in accordance with generally accepted auditing standards and government auditing standards, Single Audits, internal control reviews, data processing reviews, management letters, and continuing education seminars for a school district serving approximately 106,900 pre-kindergarten through twelfth-grade students across 164 sites with approximately 13,100 staff members, making it the seventh-largest school district in Florida. Proposers were required to be certified public accounting firms licensed to practice in Florida, members of both the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants and the Florida Institute of Certified Public Accounts, and must have demonstrated a minimum of five years of continuous CPA services in the government sector. Evaluation was based on a 100-point scale comprising general submittals (pass/fail), profile and experience (40 points), approach to audit (25 points), and cost of services (35 points), with optional oral presentations potentially adding up to an additional 100 points. The RFP posting period ran from April 20, 2020 at 9:00 AM until May 12, 2020 at 4:00 PM, with a written question deadline of April 1, 2020 at 3:00 p.m. Eastern Time, evaluation committee meetings scheduled for April 17, 2020, and potential finalist presentations on April 23, 2020. Board approval of the award was anticipated on or about May 12, 2020, with contract commencement on May 13, 2020.

CliftonLarsonAllen LLP, based in Lakeland, Florida, was selected as the recommended vendor and received board approval for the contract award. The incumbent auditor was Cherry Bekaert, which had charged historical fees of $143,000 for fiscal year 2017, no cost for fiscal year 2018 (Auditor General audit), and $149,000 for fiscal year 2019, providing a baseline for anticipated costs. The RFP contained no specific set-aside designations or restrictions limiting responses to disadvantaged enterprises or minority-owned business enterprises. Proposers were required to maintain comprehensive insurance coverage including workers' compensation, commercial general liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence/$2,000,000 aggregate, professional liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence/$2,000,000 aggregate, cyber liability of $1,000,000 per occurrence/$2,000,000 aggregate, and crime coverage of $500,000 per occurrence. All proposals were required to be submitted electronically through VendorLink in Microsoft Excel, Adobe PDF, or ZIP file formats, with submissions accepted in either signed PDF or digitally signed formats due to pandemic-related procedural accommodations. Progress billing was permitted on a percentage of completion basis, with the District reserving the right to retain ten percent of fees pending final report completion.