WIC §11325.15: (a) (1) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the Online CalWORKs Appraisal Tool (OCAT) is an essential part of CalWORKs welfare-to-work case management and should function as a shared servic

(a) (1) The Legislature hereby finds and declares that the Online CalWORKs Appraisal Tool (OCAT) is an essential part of CalWORKs welfare-to-work case management and should function as a shared service in the Statewide Automated Welfare System (SAWS), which is the system of record for the CalWORKs program, as expeditiously as possible. (2) The State Department of Social Services shall expedite any necessary steps to obtain any necessary licenses to allow the OCAT to function as a shared service in the SAWS environment. (b) OCAT shall become a shared service in the SAWS environment, consistent with the state’s shared services strategy. The functionality of OCAT in the SAWS environment shall include, but not be limited to, the exchange of data to prevent the need for duplicate data entry, to alert users to potential data conflicts, and to transmit OCAT recommendations to SAWS, where the recommendations may be used to streamline the case management of welfare-to-work activities and to produce reports. (c) The implementation of this section shall not reduce access by the department nor counties to OCAT data and recommendations, as that access existed as of June 30, 2017. (d) (1) Notwithstanding any other law, contracts necessary to obtain licenses for OCAT shall be exempt from the personal services contracting requirements of Article 4 (commencing with Section 19130) of Chapter 5 of Part 2 of Division 5 of Title 2 of the Government Code. (2) Notwithstanding any other law, contracts necessary to obtain licenses for OCAT shall be exempt from the Public Contract Code and the State Contracting Manual, and shall not be subject to the approval of the Department of General Services.