Purchasing / P-Card Guidelines
General
The Technical College System of Georgia’s System Office and all Technical Colleges shall comply with all federal and state laws, as well as regulations and procedures established by the Georgia Department of Administrative Services (DOAS) State Purchasing Division (SPD), the Georgia Technology Authority (GTA), and the State Accounting Office (SAO) with respect to purchasing. Such purchasing policies will ensure efficient and economical use of budgeted funds. The state purchasing policies and procedures can be found under the Official Code of Georgia, Annotated O.C.G.A 50-5-1 through 50-5-84. An interpretation of such codes can be found in the Georgia Procurement Manual (GPM) at the following link: Georgia Procurement Manual Link.
Technical College System of Georgia Central Purchasing Office has unlimited purchasing authority for all regular purchases and a delegated purchasing authority up to $1 Million for Request for Proposals. All Technical Colleges are assigned a $25,000 DPA and may purchase from any existing Statewide Contracts or State Entity Contracts, all Exempt designations from O.C.G.A. 50-5-58 and Exempt NIGP commodity codes at their college level. All requests for non-contract purchases or non-exempt items exceeding the college’s authority and all requests for RFPs must be routed to TCSG Central Purchasing Office for processing. Colleges are not authorized to process Requests for Proposals at any dollar amount.
Colleges may apply to increase their delegated purchasing authority to $50,000 according to the TCSG internal policy. Upon receiving this request, an audit of the college’s purchasing operation will be conducted which includes a review of the experience of APO, previous training and certifications, organization and a desk audit of a previous purchasing period for their business unit. All DPA increases are subject to the approval of the TCSG Director of Purchasing and TCSG Assistant Commissioner for Administrative Services.
In addition, all Requests for Waivers from Statewide Contracts, all requests to Piggyback from other entities’ Agency/Entity Contracts and Emergency Purchase Justifications must be submitted to TCSG Central Purchasing for submission to DOAS SPD. All requests to update Designated APOs or P-Card Administrators must also route through TCSG Central Purchasing prior to submission to DOAS SPD.
This policy applies to all purchases and is not just limited to supplies, equipment, software, leases and services. Additional detail of procedures may be found in the TCSG Accounting Procedures Manual – Purchasing Procedures on the TCSG Intranet. In addition, State Board approval must be obtained for all purchases valued at $125,000.00 or above annually prior to award being issued to supplier.
References:
TCSG Accounting Procedures Manual: Purchasing Procedures Link (4/28/09)
DOAS State Purchasing: DOAS State Purchasing Link
Georgia Technology Authority: Georgia Technology Authority Link
TCSG Central Purchasing Office Org Chart: Central Purchasing Office Org Chart Link
For additional information, please contact
Toyia Hunter at thunter@tcsg.edu or 404.679.1773.