Kan. Admin. Regs. § 26-3-1

Current through Register Vol. 43, No. 49, December 5, 2024

Section 26-3-1 - Contracting and granting practices and requirements

(a) Department approval of funding. No grantee or contractor shall make a subgrant or contract involving funds made available by the department until an area plan or other document detailing the proposed use or uses of the funds has been approved by the secretary for a specific time period and the secretary has issued a notification of grant award or contract to the grantee or contractor.

(b) Allowable use of funds. In making a subgrant or contract, each grantee or contractor shall use the funds awarded under a secretary-approved area plan for those services that are consistent with service definitions issued and provided by the department and the identified priority service needs within the PSA.

(c) Competitive bids. Each entity that receives funding through a program administered by the secretary, except a medicaid program, shall be selected on a competitive basis, unless a noncompetitive selection basis is permitted by some other provision of law. For purposes of this subsection, "entity" shall include any grantee or contractor, a subgrantee or subcontractor of a grantee or contractor, and any entity providing services under any arrangement with a subgrantee or subcontractor.

(d) Provider selection standards. The service provider selection process for grants, contracts, subgrants, and subcontracts required by subsection (c) shall meet the following requirements:

(1) For services provided under a state-funded program, the provider selection process used shall encourage free and open competition among qualified, responsible providers by meeting, at a minimum, the following requirements:

(A) Providing potential providers with a notice of service needs describing the required services, the service standards, the minimum vendor qualifications, and the process for submitting a bid or an offer to provide the services; and

(B) identifying and avoiding both potential and actual conflicts of interest. A "conflict of interest" shall mean a situation in which an employee, officer, or agent or any member of the employee's, officer's, or agent's immediate family or partner, or an organization that employs or is about to employ any of these parties, has a financial or other interest in the firm selected for a grant award or contract.

(2) For services provided under a program funded with federal funds or a combination of federal and state funds, the provider selection process shall satisfy the competition and procurement standards and procedures by meeting, at a minimum, either of the following requirements:

(A) For each grantee or contractor that is a part of a local government, the requirements of 45 C.F.R. 92.36(b) through (i), as in effect on October 1, 2009 and hereby adopted by reference; or

(B) for each grantee or contractor that is not a part of a local government, the requirements of 45 C.F.R. 74.40 through 74.48, as in effect on October 1, 2009 and hereby adopted by reference.

(e) Older Americans act services. When the department enters into a contract with or awards a grant to an area agency under the older Americans act to provide services to older persons within a PSA, the following provisions shall apply:

(1) The area agency shall enter into a subgrant or contract for services within 90 days after the effective date of the notification of grant award issued by the department, unless the area agency requests and receives prior written approval for an extension of time from the secretary.

(2) The area agency may enter into a contract with a unit of local government or with a nonprofit organization to provide services without the prior written approval of the secretary. For purposes of this regulation, a "nonprofit" organization is an organization that has received a determination letter from the internal revenue service that qualifies it for tax-exempt status under the internal revenue code.

(3) The area agency shall not enter into a contract with an individual or a for-profit organization to provide services until the area agency has requested and received written approval from the secretary to enter into the contract. Requests for contract approvals shall be approved if accompanied by a notarized statement from the area agency's executive director that the contract was procured according to competition and procurement standards and procedures required by the older Americans act and does not involve a conflict of interest as defined in paragraph (d)(1)(B). Within 30 days after the date on which the request was received, the area agency shall be notified by the department if the request is approved or disapproved.

(4) An area agency whose older Americans act for-profit service provider terminates the service contract before the end of the contract's term for any reason may enter into a replacement contract with a different for-profit provider for the same services without using the area agency's normal competitive process and without requesting the prior approval of the secretary required by this regulation if the area agency, within 30 days after the effective date of the replacement contract, sends the secretary a written notice describing the following:

(A) The circumstances of the contract termination;

(B) the efforts made to obtain replacement services; and

(C) an assurance that the replacement contract does not involve a conflict of interest, as defined in paragraph (d)(1)(B).

(5) An area agency shall not alter a subgrant or contract during the final 60 days of any grant or contract period, unless the area agency requests and receives written approval for the alteration from the secretary.

(f) Record retention. Each area agency shall retain its grants, subgrants, contracts, and subcontracts with service providers in retrievable form for at least six years after the date on which the grant, subgrant, contract, or subcontract ended or at least three calendar years from the date of the area agency's final financial report, whichever date is later, unless otherwise stated in the department's grant or contract.

(1) If any litigation, claim, financial management review, or audit begins before the expiration of the retention period, the area agency shall retain its records pertaining to the litigation, claim, financial management review, or audit until all litigation, claims, or audit findings involving the records have been resolved and final action taken.

(2) Upon request made during the retention period, an area agency shall make its grants, contracts, and subcontracts available for review by representatives of the department or its auditors, the division of legislative post audit, or the United States department of health and human services.

Kan. Admin. Regs. § 26-3-1

Authorized by and implementing K.S.A. 2010 Supp. 75-5908; effective, T-85-47, Dec. 19, 1984; effective May 1, 1985; amended, T-86-48, Dec. 18, 1985; amended, T- 89-14, April 26, 1988; amended Oct. 1, 1988; amended Jan. 7, 2000; amended July 15, 2011.