Recap of this week's Huddle
Huddle Notes
March 10, 2020
In today’s Huddle, Melissa Denney, Director of Purchasing gave insight to the inner workings of the Purchasing department and the life of a purchase order.
Purchasing Mission: “To efficiently procure goods and services required for County operations utilizing ethical, cost-effective, and statutory methods”
Professional Buyers
- Uphold Procurement’s Code of Ethics, best practices and guiding principles
- Bridge the gap between suppliers and end users
- Utilize contracts to be good stewards of county monies
The Purchase Order Process
- From Department requisition to vendor issued a PO, there are 5 steps in creation
- Once a department enters the requisition, then the pricing research beings
- After finding the best source these documents move with the requisition for the auditor’s review
- Approved requisitions then change into purchase orders
90 Day MO Statute 50.660.1
- Purchases are coded by type and tracked to ensure $6000 threshold is not exceeded
- Exceptions: single source, professional, emergency, contract
- Report maintained by purchasing to stay in compliance
Types of Purchases
- Open purchases/informal bids are all tracked for statute 50.660.01 compliance
- Single source means only a specific vendor can supply the product *ie: utilities
- Professional refers to services provided by a specific vendor *ie: attorney services
- Emergency procurement is excluded from the 90 day statute *ie broken water line
- Contract requires research and a formal bid process
These codes are attached at the time the purchase order is created by the professional buyer.
Three Levels of Buyer Expertise
Buyer I: purchases inventory items and other routine purchases
Buyer II: purchases more complex items such as for the Jail and Sherriff department
Buyer III: can monitor bids and fill in occasionally for the Director, including approval queue authority
Did you know?
- March is National Procurement month
- Our Purchasing Department staff have a combined over 76 years of public procurement experience
- Also our surplus property program has earned the county more than $1 million