105 - Authority

Procurement Services 105: Procurement Authority

Purpose

To provide guidelines to university employees regarding their authority to make purchases or sign contracts.

Reference

Board of Regents Policy 05.06 

Definitions

Delegated Authority: The permission given to individuals to make commitments on behalf of the university that has been authorized in writing or by policy.
Procurement Officer: The individual acting within their formal delegated authority

Policy

Authority and Delegation The President of the University and the Chief Procurement Officer (CPO) are the individuals directly authorized to make purchases, contracts, and related commitments of University funds. The President and the CPO delegate their authority, except as prohibited by law, to the campus procurement officers. Campus procurement officer may re-delegate authority unless otherwise prohibited.
No person may make purchases or commitments unless they have been delegated specific procurement authority in writing or by policy. No personnel may make purchases outside of or in excess of their specific delegated authority. No purchase or contract shall be entered into unless the procuring official ensures that all requirements of law, executive orders, regulations, and all other applicable procedures, including approvals, have been met.
Under the policies contained in this section, Procurement Services is the final authority at UAA for the selection of vendors and the sole authority for the commitment of UAA funds with respect to the procurement of goods and services. The Director of Procurement Services is responsible for the interpretation and administration of purchasing policies.   Authority Delegated by Policy On campus departments have a delegated expenditure authority to make small value purchases by the following methods:

Departments must observe the requirements, restrictions and thresholds associated with any of these methods. Individuals exercising small value purchasing authority are expected to read and follow the related policies.
The authority threshold is for the total purchase, not for individual items. Splitting purchases to avoid exceeding the departmental delegation of authority or to avoid processing the purchase through Procurement Services is not permitted (e.g. with a procurement card, you cannot purchase ten $2,500 items for a total of $25,000). For procurements over this threshold and by other purchasing methods, only Procurement Services has the delegated authority to make these purchases.

Effective: 10/25/2005