B-5. Purchasing
Indiana University has centralized all university purchasing into the Office of Procurement Services and has divided their staff into teams of commodity specialists. When purchasing an item, the department will process a requisition in KFS for a purchase order. This will route to the appropriate team and commodity specialist based upon what items are being ordered. The Office of Procurement Services website contains contract information, contact lists, and policies.
The Office of Procurement Services holds signature authority for all purchases made for the university and maintains authority to bind the university financially to a vendor. Vendor contracts may not be signed by any campus department and must be passed through to the appropriate contract manager for approval.
All goods and services purchased for the university use must be purchased in accordance with University policy FIN-PUR-02 which states the following:
- Faculty and staff should use P-Cards and automatic purchase orders (APO) with non-contracted suppliers only when the goods or services are not available through an established contract.
- Purchasing staff will audit P-Card and APO transactions to determine compliance with the policy.
- Accounts Payable will also monitor requests for reimbursement on Disbursement Vouchers (DVs) for similar transactions where faculty or staff have used personal funds to secure goods or services and have sought reimbursement from the University.
- If a faculty or staff member is aware of problems with an established agreement, he or she should contact the purchasing department regarding the issue for resolution. Similarly, faculty and staff should contact the purchasing department to develop contracts that would help streamline the procurement process.
Review the Base Org Review Guidelines on the Accounting Services website for guidance regarding requisition initiation.