Purchasing on Research Foundation Accounts

Small Purchases (less than $5,000)

There are several methods that can be used to make small purchases that are allowed by your sponsor regulations, allocable to the project being charged and covered by sufficient funds in your account:

• Telephone orders - contact the vendor to place the order asking that the invoice be sent to:

  Texas A&M Research Foundation
  Account No. _________________
  3578 TAMU
  College Station, TX 77843

• JP Morgan Chase Procurement Card
• Other Credit Cards
• Personal Funds or personal credit card may be used to purchase items and reimbursement requested using RF Reimbursement Form.

Purchase Orders

All purchases of $5,000 or more that involve the purchase of equipment, supplies, services, rentals, leases (including vehicles), conference registrations, maintenance agreements and publication of articles must be submitted to your Research Administrator using an order requisition form prior to commitment. Upon approval by your Research Administrator, the Purchasing Office will issue a purchase order to the vendor.

Exceptions to the order requisition requirement are:

• Freight charges,
• Inter-campus purchases from a member of The Texas A&M University System,
• Joint purchases between members of The Texas A&M University System and the Research Foundation.

  Purchase orders are usually issued within three days from receipt of the order requisition. If an immediate need must be met, please contact the Purchasing Office for assistance.

Bids

Competitive bids are required on purchases of single items of $5,000 or more and purchases of any number of the same item whose aggregate cost is $5,000 or more. Written bids may be obtained by the project staff or by the Purchasing Office using specifications provided by the project on the order requisition. Justification is required when the lowest bidder is not selected to receive the order.

Exceptions to the competitive bid requirement are:

• Only one source of supply is known (written justification required),
• An item is available through a State Purchasing Contract or the Federal Supply Schedules,
• The services to be performed are of a technical or professional nature by an individual instead of a company (Ex: individual consultants),
• Providing bidders with adequate specifications, plans, or other sufficiently detailed descriptions of the required material or services is impossible (Ex: architect, engineer or R&D services),

  Written quotes from the vendors are required on the above exceptions.

  The vendors should be allowed seven to ten working days to prepare and submit their bids. If your project has an emergency need for an item that must be bid, the Foundation Purchasing Office will obtain rush bids or you may use the Emergency Telephone Bid Procedures.

Emergency Telephone Bid Procedures

If there is an emergency need for the purchase of equipment or materials that require bids, use this as a guide for obtaining telephone bids:

• Bids must be requested from at least three vendors.
• Each vendor should be supplied with the same specifications, and the best price should be requested. Negotiations are not allowable at this stage of the purchase.
• Record the bid from each vendor on the Record of Telephone Bid Request form.
• Select the vendor based on the low bid. If a vendor other than the low bidder is selected, a written justification is required.
• Attach the Record of Telephone Bid Request for each vendor to an order requisition and forward to your Research Administrator.
• If the order must be placed immediately, contact your Research Administrator to obtain a purchase order number that can be used to place the order.

Shared Purchases Between System Members

When the cost of a purchase is shared between your Research Foundation account and another TAMUS member account (TAMU, TEES, TAES, etc.), each member must be notified so that funds can be reserved for the expense. Normally, the purchase order for a shared purchase will be processed through the University Purchasing Office.

Utilization of Socioeconomic Business Groups

Federal agencies are required by law to utilize not only small and small disadvantaged businesses as much as possible, but also to use veteran owned and service disabled veteran owned, woman owned and HUB Zone businesses, as much as possible. This requirement is passed on to contractors and subcontractors. Therefore, the Research Foundation is required to include subcontracting plans for the above groups in contracts over $500,000 and in all EPA grants. These subcontracting plans show "goals" which are estimated percentages of the budget that can be placed with these socioeconomic business groups. Reports are filed periodically during the year with the sponsors indicating progress made in meeting the subcontracting goals.

Your help is requested in the following ways to improve results from the subcontracting plans while providing you with needed services, supplies and equipment at the best possible prices:

• If you know vendors you plan to do business with are classified small, small disadvantaged, veteran owned, service disabled veteran owned, woman owned, or HUB Zone businesses, please let us know when submitting your proposals. This will allow us to adjust the goals accordingly. If you do not know a vendor's classification, provide us with the company name, address and phone number. We will obtain the needed information.
• The RF maintains a vendor database that includes businesses from these groups that may be able to provide your research services, supplies and equipment. When we receive your order requisitions, you may be asked to consider an alternate vendor to meet your needs.
• When placing your small dollar orders (orders under $5,000 that do not require a purchase order), please use vendors from these socioeconomic groups when possible. Please call our Purchasing Office for help in identifying these vendors.