the municipal secretary desktop reference manual - Southwestern ...

NOTES
THE PURCHASING SEQUENCE
I. Adopt ordinance establishing purchasing policy and procedure.
Purchasing ordinance, at a minimum, should:
- centralize purchasing responsibility in one officer
- detail purchasing procedures
- relate purchasing function to the accounting system
- authorize cooperative purchasing arrangements with other governments
- ordinance periodically reviewed and amended when necessary to reflect legal and
environmental changes
II.
A procedure exists which will deter the splitting of purchases to avoid submitting them to
competitive bidding.
Annually, users and purchasing agents consolidate supply, material and service requirements
to determine whether formal quotations or bids will be required.
Products are standardized when the same types of items are used in more than one
department.
Product and service specifications are developed when necessary. Existing specifications are
reviewed annually by users and purchasing officer to ensure their relevancy. (See attached
RFP guide and notes on General Specifications.)
Specifications are designed to allow for adequate competition among vendors.
Commercial standards or specifications developed by others (federal, state, other local
governments, professional associations, etc.) are used instead of locally developed
specifications.
There is a written procedure for emergency purchasing.
Emergency purchases are recorded and tracked to see that the process is not being abused.
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