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3.1.16.p. Procedure: Southeastern Technical College Purchasing



In accordance with Georgia law (O.C.G.A § 50-5-50 et seq.), all purchases made by Southeastern Technical College shall conform to all purchasing laws and all purchasing rules or procedures established by the Technical College System of Georgia and/or the Department of Administrative Services.

Southeastern Technical College has delegated purchase authority to directly purchase goods and services valued at $25,000 or less.

Any purchase to a single vendor over $25,000 must be competitively bid unless the vendor is on statewide contract or the purchase is for goods and services that are exempt from the purchasing guidelines set forth by the Department of Administrative Services.

The State Board must approve any purchase valued at $125,000 or more.

If a proposed purchase exceeds $100,000 and is for goods and services related to technology, as that term is defined at O.C.G.A. § 50-25-1 then such purchases shall be approved by the Georgia Technology Authority.

All purchases must follow the appropriate order of precedence. The order is as follows:

1. Mandatory Statewide Contracts
2. State Entity Contracts
3. Georgia Correctional Industries or Georgia Enterprises for Products and Services for products designated at mandatory.
4. Convenience Statewide Contracts (preferred products available through GEPS or open market purchases)

Please see attached flowchart to determine your vendor.

Determine Your Needs

The first things to consider are what you need and when you need them. Purchase requisitions should be done in a timely fashion in order to give the Vice Presidents time to approve the order and the Purchasing Office time to enter the purchase order and have the items in by the time they are needed by the employee.

  • Purchases under $25,000 are handled at the school level by the purchasing department.
  • Requisitions which are over $25,000 must be competitively bid and handled by the TCSG Purchasing Office. This requires extra time to process.
  • Requisitions which exceed $25,000 must be sent to the Purchasing Office at the TCSG system office, which also requires extra time.

Determine the Supplier

Consult Purchasing to determine if the desired items are from a mandatory source, which is a vendor from whom we are required to order certain items.

To determine if the desired items are to be ordered from a mandatory source, go to http://ssl.doas.state.ga.us/PRSapp/PR_StateWide_contract_list_alpha.jsp to view contract listing.

If the item(s) is not found in any of the above, it may be considered an Open Market purchase.

Steps to creating a purchase requisition through Team Georgia Marketplace

 

•         https://solutions.sciquest.com/apps/Router/Login?OrgName=Georgia

 

•         Click "Forgot My Password"

•         The system will email you a temporary password.  You will use your email address as your login ID

Ad Hoc approvers will be the Director of IT for any IT related item and the VP for Institutional Effectiveness for any Perkins item. 

•         IT Purchases

•         Ad Hoc Approver - Director of IT (Paul Graham)

•         Director of IT will be listed as a cart approver for all shoppers.

•         However, your cart should be sent to your supervisor FIRST.

•         Steps to purchase an IT related item:

•         Send email to Director of IT listing what you need

•         Director of IT will send you a quote for the item(s)

•         Create your shopping cart based on items from that quote

•         Send your cart to your supervisor, with the quote attached

•         Supervisors approve the cart and send to Director of IT

•         Director of IT approves cart and sends to VP

• VP will approve and send to the Purchasing Office

 

•         Perkins Purchases

•         Ad Hoc Approver— - VP Institutional Effectiveness (Mitchell Fagler)

•         Frequent question "How do I know if I have a Perkins purchase?"

•         The Perkins budget is created prior to every fiscal year with a list of pre-determined items. Items purchased with Perkins funds must be an approved item on the Perkins budget

•         You will receive email from the VP for Institutional Effectiveness or your VP if you have been approved to purchase a Perkins item and precisely what that item is

• You will locate the item or items from an approved vendor and obtain a quote. You may ask for assistance from the Purchasing Office if you need help in locating a vendor

•         You will click "Add Comment" and state that this is a Perkins purchase and assign your cart to the VP for Institutional Effectiveness

Steps to purchase a Perkins budget item: "Receive email from your VP or VP for IE stating that you have been approved to purchase a Perkins budget item " Vendor will send you a quote for the item(s) " Create your shopping cart based on items form that quote " Send your cart to your supervisor and inform your supervisor that this is a Perkins purchase. Attach the quote to the shopping cart " Supervisors approve the cart and send to the VP for IE " VP for IE will approve and send to the Purchasing Office

 

•         Non-contract Items

•         If the item you need to purchase cannot be found in the virtual catalogs, you will click “Non-Catalog Item”

•         Since you won't have a Statewide Contract vendor, you will select "Best Vendor"

•         Purchasing Specialist will work with you to select the vendor once the requisition obtains the appropriate approvals

•         You may click the "Add Comments" button to add comments if you have a preferred vendor or to add any additional information

 

•         Go to the SciQuest website

•         https://solutions.sciquest.com/apps/Router/Login?OrgName=Georgia

•         This will be the Team Georgia Marketplace homepage

•         The screen will display a shop area and several "punch-out" buttons for vendors’ virtual catalogs

•         This will allow you to "punch-out" to the virtual catalog(s) and select your items there

•         Select your item(s)

•         Enter your quantity

•         Click "Add to Cart"

•         When finished, click "Checkout" 

•         Review your cart and when ready, click "Submit"

•         Click "Proceed to Checkout"

•         Click "Assign Cart"

•         Select your supervisor from the dropdown box

•         Click "Assign"

•         Your cart is now ready for your supervisor's approval.  Your supervisor will receive an email notification that a cart is awaiting his/her approval

 

•         Cart Approvers

•         When you receive email notification that a cart has been assigned to you, please review and approve or pushback the cart as soon as possible

•         Sign in to SciQuest website

•         On your sceen, you will see a link to "Carts Assigned to me"

•         Click this link to see carts that have been assigned to you

•         The carts will be named by the following naming convention:

•         2013-08-31_dpowell@southeasterntech.edu_01

•         2013-08-31_dpowell@southeasterntech.edu_02

•         Click on the cart link that you would like to review

•         Review the cart.  This step allows for any quantity changes or removal of items

•         When you are ready, click "Proceed to Checkout"

•         Click "Assign Cart" and select from the dropdown box

•         Supervisors will select their VP as the next approver, unless it is a Perkins or IT related item

In this case, the carts will be assigned to the VP for IE or the Director of IT, respectively. These ad-hoc approvers will assign cart that has been pushed to them to the appropriate VP or in the case of Perkins, directly to the Purchasing Office.

•        

•         Vice Presidents will select the Purchasing Specialist as the next approver

Click "Assign" and your cart is now waiting on the next approver

Budget and NIGP codes will be completed by the Purchasing Specialist once the cart arrives in her queue


System Advantages

•         Ability to see where your cart/requisition is at all stages of approval

•         Notification when a PO has been created from your cart/requisition

•         Approval can be done from PC, iPad, or any mobile device with internet access

•         Multiple email reminders for carts pending approval

•         Easy/convenient statewide contract shopping using virtual catalogs

•         Electronic delivery of POs directly to vendors

 

 

Other Information and Definitions                                                                                                        

·         Based on the Georgia Annotated Code §50-5-50 – §50-5-81 (O.C.G.A § 50-5-50 et seq.), the splitting of requirements to avoid competitive bidding or to circumvent the Regular Delegated Purchasing Authority ($25,000)  is STRICTLY FORBIDDEN.

·         An employee may use his or her State Purchasing Card for purchases less than $5,000, as long as no single item is $1,000 or greater. The procedures for obtaining approval, as written in STC's p-card plan, must be followed prior to making a purchasing card purchase. Further Purchasing Card procedures may be found in the Purchasing Card Manual, which is available from the Purchasing Office or on the Intranet.

·         Once the order is received, all receiving documents (packing slips, invoices, etc.) must be forwarded to the Accounts Payable department for payment.

·         Emergency purchases are addressed by the Purchasing Office on an individual basis. By definition, an emergency purchase is when emergency circumstances exist where normal purchasing procedures cannot be utilized without extreme detrimental effects upon the operation of the State Entity and the State's business. The purchase should be handled by the Agency Procurement Officer or Purchasing Agent using Open Market purchasing practices, as appropriate. Approval by the employee's Vice President must be obtained prior to placing an emergency order, and the Purchasing Office will assist in expediting orders to eliminate delays in such cases.

·         SOLE BRAND - When a particular brand/model is the ONLY acceptable brand that will meet requirements and no alternates will be accepted.

·         SOLE SOURCE - When a "Sole Brand" purchase is only available from ONE (1) source. Sole Source per DOAS must be posted on the GPR for 5 business days as a Notice of Intent to Award.

·         Unauthorized Purchases are as follows:
A. Is a purchase where a person orders materials, equipment or items without a PO# generated in the system
B. Is a purchase with incomplete signatures on the purchase requisition

2 CFR 200.110 states:
For the procurement standards in §§200.317-200.326, non-Federal entities may continue to comply with the procurement standards in previous OMB guidance (superseded by this part as described in §200.104) for two additional fiscal years after this part goes into effect. If a non-Federal entity chooses to use the previous procurement standards for an additional two fiscal years before adopting the procurement standards in this part, the non-Federal entity must document this decision in their internal procurement policies. Southeastern Technical College has chosen to use the grace period and apply previous procurement standards for an additional two fiscal years. Therefore, Southeastern Technical College will comply with the new procurement standards set forth in §§200.317-200.326 beginning July 1, 2017.
Southeastern Technical College has elected to operate under the grace period and will comply with the new procurement standards set forth in §§200.317-200.326 beginning July 1, 2018.

References
Link: Georgia Procurement Manual
Exhibit: STC Purchasing Flowchart
Exhibit: Southeastern Technical College Purchasing Card Policy Procedures Manual

Adopted: April 22, 2010
Reviewed: December 12, 2016; June 14, 2017; December 11, 2017; June 21, 2021; June 22, 2022; June 26, 2023;
Revised: December 11, 2017; June 21, 2021;