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Purchasing Procedure

All goods and contractual services are requested on an electronic requisition (E- Req), unless you are making small dollar purchases with your P-Card. Approvals are generated through a Workflow System. Requestors are not authorized to make purchases. For internal control purposes, all purchases are to be placed through the Office of Procurement & Travel Services.

All requisition forms should have complete vendor information, as well as product information, to facilitate the purchasing process. Incomplete forms may be returned to the requester, resulting in a delay in the purchasing process, inevitably causing a delay in the delivery of items or services.

Purchasing Policy

• If merchandise is to be previewed, an E-Req must be submitted indicating the desire to preview. If the merchandise is returned, notify the Procurement Office and the Purchase Order will be cancelled.
• Purchases requiring special maintenance services, such as plumbing or electricity, must be approved by the Director of Physical Plant.
• When ordering toxic or hazardous material, please indicate on the E-Req that the OSHA-20 Material Data Sheets are required.
• In order to avoid duplicate software purchases and to ensure that computer equipment and software is supportable and compatible with the College's computer equipment, software and hardware purchases, purchases must be coordinated through Information Services.

Where competition is not available because of the sole source nature of a product, a written justification must be submitted with the E-Req, and it must be approved by the Vice President for Administration before the Purchase Order can be processed. 

If a multi-year contract is to be entered, the total cost of the service or items over the course of the contract should be listed on the E-Req. The cost is then divided by the length of the contract to determine the portion to be charged to the current year. It is possible for a contract to have only a few months in the current year, several full years and then end with the remainder of the months in the last year of the contract. The President and Vice President of Administrative Services are the only ones authorized to sign contracts.

If at any time you have questions about the purchasing procedures, please contact the Office of Procurement & Travel Services at 386-7555 or email at purchasing@canton.edu.