Q&A
Centralizing oversight and compliance within MOCS's Vendor Integrity Unit
2:24:39
·
3 min
Council Member Julie Won inquires about centralizing oversight and compliance within MOCS's Vendor Integrity Unit (VIU) and the steps taken through the Vendor Compliance Cabinet (VCC). Charles Diamond from MOCS explains the roles of VIU and VCC, their composition, and recent policy developments.
- Diamond clarifies the distinction between VIU and VCC, with VIU focusing on day-to-day operations and VCC on broader policy and procedures
- He highlights concrete steps taken, including anti-nepotism policy, adverse information directive, and conflicts of interest policy
- Diamond emphasizes the collaborative approach involving multiple stakeholders in policy development
Julie Won
2:24:39
Okay.
2:24:40
And, my last question is, do I recommend the centralizing oversight and compliance fiscal and governance matters within MOC's vendor integrity unit?
2:24:48
What challenges do you foresee to implement this recommendation?
2:24:51
And can you give us more resources on what concrete steps you've now taken through the vendor compliance cabinet?
2:24:59
And what is MOX's target timeline?
2:25:04
Who is in this also?
2:25:06
Who's in this special compliance cabinet?
Charles Diamond
2:25:09
So, chair 1, I'd say first on the vendor integrity unit that you mentioned.
2:25:13
Let's speak of the vendor integrity unit is a unit within MOX that is doing specific acts that is really try you know, more in the day to day and is gonna be developing, thinking about really the same thing that the VCC will be thinking about, which is technology, procedures, and policy in order to bet get better outcomes here.
2:25:30
The difference is definitely, partially in the makeup is that VIU is a mocks unit designed to push things forward, in order to reach those goals.
2:25:39
The vendor compliance cabinet is chaired by director Flores, the head of mocks, and executive director LeBeck, the head of the mayor's office of risk management and compliance.
2:25:48
It includes the procuring agencies and then, what I would say is kind of, you know, other oversight such as law or, the mayor's office of nonprofit services, are advisors and join as needed depending on the nature of the discussion.
2:26:03
So you have those 2 units.
2:26:04
In terms of the specific and concrete things that have come out of them, so as I referenced earlier, the, you have the anti nepotism policy, which, as the commissioner had stated, originally started within with VIU working with DSS and saying how are we gonna deal with these issues, developing these anti nepotism procedures.
2:26:21
Those then elevate it to the VCC, to the compliance cabinet, so that we can not work in a silo.
2:26:27
Because I think that's something that's happened previously is you develop a little policy, but you haven't seen how is it gonna work on the ground with your procuring agencies talking to the Ackos, talking to the program people on the ground who actually know the accountability issues, what tools they need.
2:26:40
So we've really put an emphasis there as a firm structure and a charter to the vendor compliance cabinet that says here's our goals, here's what we hope to achieve.
2:26:47
So anti nepotism has been, is is completely out on the street.
2:26:51
We have, a a directive was issued this summer regarding adverse information, kind of related to a lot of what we've been talking about, enhancing those procedures of saying, agencies, if you say CX, you needed to report it to Y so that we're sharing information, we're getting all of the really, the the making sure we're getting as much of the adverse information as early as possible in order for agencies to make the best decisions.
2:27:14
And then I also referenced the conflicts of interest policy and related party transactions.
2:27:19
Those have been developed.
2:27:20
Those have been drafted.
2:27:21
They've been shared with various stakeholders, and they are up for, implementation presently, And we hope to have those in place for fiscal year, or, for calendar year 25.
2:27:32
And so those I would say are some of the concrete steps.
2:27:34
Although, as, I think, you know, Chair Juan, as you know well, we talk about vendor integrity, there are lots of places at Mox that are concerned with vendor integrity.
2:27:44
Outside of the VIU, the VIU has specifically been put in place to drive these tech, policy, and procedural changes to improve outcomes.
