Report No. 2026-10: A Performance Audit of Salt Lake County's Oversight of the Discovery Gateway Agreement

AUDITOR's LETTER

September 2, 2026

We have completed a limited scope performance audit of Salt Lake County's ("the County") oversight of the Discovery Gateway Agreement ("the Agreement"). The audit covered the period from January 1, 2023, through December 31, 2024, and examined compliance with the Agreement, maintenance of County-owned building systems, Facilities Management's recording and billing of maintenance work, and required reporting by Discovery Gateway.

This report contains six findings and 17 recommendations. Two of the findings are rated high risk under the classification framework used in this report: preventive maintenance scheduling and documentation, and facility condition reporting and monitoring. We identified no instances of fraud, waste, or abuse. The County and Discovery Gateway have maintained a working relationship for more than 20 years, but the formal processes supporting that relationship have not kept pace with the way the Agreement operates today. The audit identified opportunities to strengthen contract oversight, preventive maintenance, reporting, work order documentation, billing, and conflict-of-interest oversight. Clearer processes and better documentation would help ensure that contract requirements continue to be understood and followed as personnel change, while strengthening the County's ability to demonstrate compliance over time.

What We Found

Preventive maintenance was not consistently scheduled, completed, or documented in accordance with the Agreement. Of the 116 preventive maintenance activities required during the audit period, 42 (36%) were completed as required. Thirty (26%) were not scheduled, 22 (19%) were scheduled but canceled without work being performed, 11 (9%) could not be confirmed because supporting documentation was unclear or missing, 7 (6%) were marked complete despite no associated work or charges, and 4 (3%) were not performed at the required frequency. Of the 30 unscheduled activities, Facilities Management believed 16 were the responsibility of the property management company; however, documentation confirming that arrangement or verifying completion was not retained. Several of the unscheduled activities involved life-safety and compliance-related systems, including fire alarm panels, smoke detectors, fire extinguishers, security panels, and state elevator inspections.

Facility condition reporting and monitoring could be strengthened. Discovery Gateway and the County maintained ongoing communication, and required financial and operational reports were generally submitted, though not always completely or on time. Of the seven quarterly reports available for review, one arrived by the deadline. The other six were between three and 387 days late, and an eighth could not be located or provided. Required employee compensation disclosures were not submitted for either 2023 or 2024, and the 2023 independent audit report arrived 79 days after completion, beyond the 30 days the Agreement allows. The County had not established a formal process for tracking, reviewing, and documenting required reports. In addition, the most recent facility condition assessment had been conducted in 2017, limiting visibility into the current condition of County-owned assets and future capital needs.

Contract management and oversight should be more formalized. The long-standing Agreement has supported a productive relationship between the County and Discovery Gateway, but the audit identified opportunities to refresh awareness of contract requirements among current stakeholders and ensure the formal framework keeps pace with how the relationship operates today.

One issue runs through all six findings in this report. The Agreement says what each party will do. It says almost nothing about what happens if they do not do it. There are no performance measures and no deadlines for fixing a problem once someone notices it. There is no process for raising a concern and getting it resolved. The Agreement also renews on its own, so there is never a point where either party has to stop and look at how the relationship is actually working. This is worth addressing as the Agreement is updated.

Work order oversight and billing practices could be improved. Work orders are the primary tool used to track maintenance activity, but consistently current status records and supporting documentation would provide a more reliable record of work performed and strengthen the billing process. The audit also identified opportunities to improve the consistency and completeness of invoice detail and supporting documentation, as well as compliance with requirements for invoice timing.

Conflict-of-interest oversight should be documented periodically. The audit did not identify conflicts of interest between the County and Discovery Gateway. That testing was limited in scope. Discovery Gateway declined our request for a roster of its employees, citing privacy concerns, so we relied on publicly available information. Existing County board disclosure procedures provide meaningful coverage for board-related relationships but do not extend to all County personnel who interact with Discovery Gateway outside of a board relationship, and the County does not maintain a documented review process specific to this Agreement.

Establishing a routine process to document periodic conflict-of-interest reviews would strengthen transparency and provide a clear record as the relationship and personnel involved in the Agreement continue to evolve.

Facilities Management and Community Services agreed with all 17 audit recommendations and outlined corrective actions to strengthen contract administration and oversight.

Facilities Management plans to review the Agreement, establish clear accountability for required preventive maintenance, implement an annual process to verify that preventive maintenance requirements are captured in the work order system. Facilities Management notes that it already has systems in place to review and approve labor and materials for each job, and plans to strengthen work order oversight through standardized status criteria added to its internal policy and procedure manual and through periodic review of work order activity; documentation standards for preventive maintenance will be addressed through that same work rather than as a separate effort. Facilities Management also plans to reinstitute the quarterly maintenance reporting required by the Agreement and complete a current facility condition assessment in 2026, with future assessments targeted every five to seven years, subject to available funding. For billing, Facilities Management plans to establish procedures addressing invoice documentation, timing, staff responsibilities, retention requirements, continuity measures, and supporting documentation.

The Auditor's Office will conduct a follow-up review no earlier than six months after issuance of this report to assess the status and effectiveness of corrective actions.

This audit was authorized under Utah Code Title 17, Chapter 69, "County Auditor", Part 3, "Powers and Duties." We conducted this performance audit in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our
audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions.

Thank you to Facilities Management and Community Services management and staff for their cooperation and assistance with this audit. Should you have any questions, please contact me at (385) 468-7200.
Chris Harding, CPA, CFE, CIA
Salt Lake County Auditor