The California Public Employees' Retirement System's (CalPERS) Risk and Audit Committee interviewed four finalist firms as part of a competitive selection process for a five-year independent financial statement audit contract that CalPERS expects will exceed $1,000,000. The interviews were held as the committee moves to recommend a finalist to the full Board of Administration for final award after negotiations and satisfaction of requirements. Justin Heeb, CalPERS contracts and procurement manager, said CalPERS released RFP No. 20259427 to seek external independent auditors for fiscal years 2025-26 through 2029-30 and that the system received seven proposals by the July 7, 2025 filing deadline; four advanced to the finalist stage.

The finalists invited for oral interviews were BDO USA, P.C.; Plante Moran, P.C.; Crowe LLP; and KPMG LLP. Heeb provided preliminary fee scores and noted each firm received 50 DVBE (Disabled Veteran Business Enterprise) incentive points: BDO received a preliminary fee score of 300 and a preliminary total of 350; Plante Moran received 294.59 and a preliminary total of 344.59; Crowe received 290.96 and a preliminary total of 340.96; and KPMG received 288.68 and a preliminary total of 338.68. Heeb said each finalist would have a five-minute presentation followed by 45 minutes of questions and answers, and the committee will allocate up to five minutes afterward for clarifying or follow-up questions.

Kevin Fine, CalPERS chief compliance officer, summarized prior Board action, saying the Board of Administration at its Feb. 18, 2025 meeting approved allowing CalPERS staff to issue the RFP and to use a subcommittee of the Risk and Audit Committee to interview and recommend a finalist. Fine told the committee that, for this phase, the full Risk and Audit Committee will perform the interviews and recommend the top-scoring finalist to the full board for award, subject to final negotiations and satisfaction of all requirements.

The committee will determine interview scores as a group after all finalists have been interviewed, then motion and vote on the interview scores. Those interview scores will be combined with the preliminary totals to reach a final total score for each firm; the committee explained the maximum possible score for the interview phase and the combined scoring process totals up to 700 points per finalist. The committee also directed that the meeting webcast be turned off during the interviews so finalists would not see competitors' sessions, and that the webcast would resume for the committee's scoring discussion after interviews concluded.

No final contract award was made at the meeting. Committee members conducted a roll call to confirm attendance and assigned question segments to members for the interviews. The committee indicated it would move to recommend the highest total-scoring firm to the Board of Administration after scoring, subject to the standard negotiation and compliance checks.