Purchase Goods & Services > $5,000

Check with the country program (or regional office, if there is no CP) before implementing this procedure.  They may have established value limits and processes that are different from the ones we describe here.

Process Outline

1. Requester submits approved Purchase Requisition Form to local procurement department.
2. The Procurement Officer sees if the items requested are on this list of things.
   1. If they are on the list, the Procurement Officer goes to Step 5 below.
   2. If they are not on the list, the Procurement Officer goes to Step 3 below.
3. The Procurement Officer finds out if the program has a current Local Purchase Approval General Waiver.
   1. If it does, the Procurement Officer goes to Step 5 below.
   2. If it does not, the Procurement Officer goes to Step 4 below.
4. The Procurement Officer fills out a HQ Purchase Request Form (with the information from the Purchase Requisition Form), and submits to HQ (if the CP is not operating under a Local Purchase Approval General Waiver and if the items to be purchased are not on the list of exemptions).
5. Local procurement department requests written, sealed bids locally.  (Any bids that will come from the region or HQ are also submitted to the local Procurement Department by the deadline.)
6. After the deadline for bids, a Bid Committee opens and reviews all bid information, from HQ, regional, and local sources.  With this information, they make a decision about which vendor to use, and document that decision on the Bid Comparison Form.
7. After the Bid Committee has made a decision, Procurement Staff in the local office make the purchase using one of the following methods:
   1. If the Bid Committee decides to purchase locally or regionally,
      1. If they already have permission to purchase locally (that is, if the items to be purchased are on this list, or they have a Local Purchase Approval General Waiver), the procurement staff write up a Purchase Order, have it signed by the proper authorities, and issue it to the Vendor.
      2. If they do not already have permission to purchase locally, they can request it at this time by filling out a HQ requisition form, attaching all the bids they currently have, and sending the documents to the HQ Procurement Department.  If they get a positive response, they will print it out and put it in the file.  Then  they write up a Purchase Order, have it signed by the proper authorities, and issue it to the Vendor.
   2. If the Bid Committee decides on a bid that came from HQ, the procurement staff tells HQ Procurement and HQ makes the purchase.
8. Procurement staff then notifies the Receiving Staff that a delivery will be arriving.  
9. The Receiving Staff can then follow these instructions on Receiving items in the office.

Forms

1. 1. Purchase Requisition Form
   2. PRF Log
   3. Purchasing File Contents Sheet
   4. HQ Purchase Request Form
   5. Bid Request Form
   6. Bid Comparison Form
   7. Local Purchase Approval (If you do not already have permission to purchase locally, approval can be obtained by filling out a HQ requisition form, attaching all the relevant bids, and sending the documents to the HQ Procurement Department.  If HQ’s response is positive, print it out and put it in the file.)
   8. Purchase Order