John,

At the Desert Research Institute, there are no special provisions for grants
and contracts, all purchases are treated consistently.  I feel your
purchasing department is making your life (or the departmental
administrator's) difficult, I wouldn't want to deal with faculty on this
issue when they are trying to do their research.  Sounds like purchasing
department "job security" to me.  Try looking into purchasing cards, they
are very efficient, and the PI's like them a lot.  Good luck!

John Case
Assistant VP and Controller
Desert Research Institute
Reno Nevada

John Cavendish wrote:

> I have two questions related to purchasing.
> 1. Is anyone working at an institution which has special provisions for
> purchases made under grants and contracts?
> 2.  We have a $500 threshold on single purchases if they are to be
> exempt from the bidding process.  The problem arises with respect to the
> definition of what constitutes a single purchase.  Our purchasing
> department's position is that if they receive two requisitions from the
> same department or grant, each of which is under $500, if there is any
> possible way to construe the as a single purchase, they will combine
> them and put them out on bid.  For example, a PI submits a requisition
> for laboratory glassware and a seperate requisition for chemical
> reagents.  The purchasing agent combines these reqisitions using the
> justification that both requisitions are for "laboratory supplies".
> Consequently, the $500 threshold is exceeded(by $29) and they go through
> the bidding process.  The PI gets upset--and you know the rest.  Does
> anyone having any advise on dealing with kind of situation?