Procurement Services 404: Certification of Need for Restrictive Specifications

Purpose

To provide a method for faculty or principal investigators to request the procurement of specific equipment or service providers that may be critical to a program or project.

Reference

University of Alaska Procurement Manual (not available online)
Board of Regents Policy 05.06

Definitions

Sole Source Procurement: The purchase of an item or service from a single source (e.g., an item to match other items, a unique piece of equipment manufactured by one company only, an original work of art, a contractor with unique qualifications).

Policy

Applicability

The university recognizes that in certain narrow applications a specific piece of equipment or a specific service provider may be critical to the outcome of an academic program or research project. In this case, the university will rely on the credibility and integrity of the principal investigator, or faculty member, to ethically identify that need and justify a non-competitive purchase.
Certification When such a condition occurs and the procurement is in excess of the small dollar limit of $5,000, the principal investigator or faculty member must sign a formal "certification" stating that, in their professional or scientific judgment, any brand/model, or service provider other that listed on the certification is likely to jeopardize their program or research results.
When the certification is provided, Procurement Services shall restrict competition to the specified model, brand, or service provider. For equipment, it will be restricted to those vendors that are authorized to sell that brand. When Procurement Services determines that the product is available only from a single vendor, the purchase will be executed as a sole source procurement.
The certification is not applicable for ancillary equipment that may be used in support of the project, but is not intrinsically scientific or academic in nature. The purchase of such equipment is supported by other procurement procedures covering "brand name or equal specifications", performance or function specifications, need for compatibility, etc.
Click here to obtain Certification of Need for Restrictive Specifications for Research or Classroom Use.   Related Polices: Procurement Services 401: Sole Source Purchases

Effective: 10/25/2005