Notice to: Local Public Agencies receiving Federal-Aid
The Caltrans Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and Division of Local Assistance (DLA) are partnering to complete a virtual Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Oversight Monitoring review. The oversight review is required under Section 26.37(a) of Part 26 within Title 49 in the Code of Federal Regulations (49 CFR 26.37(a)), which states in part: “You [Caltrans] must implement appropriate mechanisms to ensure compliance with the Part’s requirements by all program participants.” Program participants include subrecipients of the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) grants as issued by Caltrans. The oversight monitoring review will cover six functional DBE responsibilities. The six functional responsibilities are:
1. Contract Goal Setting [49 CFR 26.51(e)]
2. Good Faith Efforts [49 CFR 26.53(a)-(d)]
3. Prompt Payment [49 CFR 26.29(a)]
4. Return of Retainage [49 CFR 26.29(b)]
5. Uniform Report and Running Tally Report [49 CFR 26.11(a)]
6. Commercially Useful Function [49 CFR 26.55(c)-(d)]
Please review full details in the DBE Oversight Monitoring letter (pdf below). The signed letter has two objectives:
(A) Advise all local agencies that FHWA is completing an oversight review on Caltrans this fall with the focus on six (6) elements, and (B) Inform all local public agencies that Caltrans is planning to complete oversight monitoring in the 12 districts through the selection of one-two (1-2) contracts per district. In addition, the letter states that an “instructional” letter will be sent once Caltrans selects the projects/subrecipients.
For questions regarding the DBE Oversight Monitoring letter, please contact: Olivia Fonseca at Olivia.Fonseca@dot.ca.gov or Robert Padilla at Robert.Padilla@dot.ca.gov.
I thought agencies were required to keep records for 3 years after filing of the FROE. The notice above is reaching back 5 years….what if an agency doesn’t have records older than 3 years?
Hello Mr. Karoly,
The 5 year range is our option on selecting contracts for review. The DBE program reviews will not be covering projects (contracts) where the retention period has expired as stated in Section 16.3 of the Local Assistance Procedures Manual and if that documentation is unavailable.
If you have further questions regarding the DBE Oversight Monitoring Review and for a quicker response, please contact: Olivia.Fonseca@dot.ca.gov or Robert.Padilla@dot.ca.gov. They are the best contacts to answer your questions in detail.