CSULB Purchasing Operations Manual
Section 3: Requirements Specific to Commodity Transactions
In addition to the special requirements contained in this Section 3, requirements in Section 2 also apply to the procurement of personal property.
PCC 10295, 10430(c); Ed Code 89036; CSU Policy Sec. 300.
3.01 Informal Bidding for Orders Less Than $10,000:
Competition is not required for commodities on informal (non-bid) acquisitions of an amount less than $10,000 unless the campus determines that competition is necessary to develop sources, validate prices, or for other sound business reasons. Whenever possible, efforts shall be made to secure quotations and develop sources from small businesses and disabled veteran business enterprises.
PCC 10301; CSU Policy 301.
3.02 Formal Bidding for Orders of $10,000 or more:
Except in cases where it has been determined that there is but one source which can properly meet the needs of the campus, all purchases of $10,000 or more (excluding sales tax and shipping costs) must be formally bid and awarded to the lowest responsible bidder meeting specifications.
PCC 1103, 10301; CSU Policy 302.
3.03 General Provisions for Bidding:
There are specific minimum terms and conditions (referred to as “General Provisions” by the CSU) to which a vendor or bidder must agree in order to sell products to the State or the CSU. These are displayed as Exhibits on the Chancellor’s Office CS&P internet website. The exact wording of these Provisions has been prescribed by the Office of General Counsel and may not be altered without pre-approval from that Office. The Provisions that are applicable to a given acquisition must become an integral part (whether referenced or stated in print) of every bid solicitation issued. Many of these provisions are pre-printed as “Purchase Order Instructions” on the reverse side of the standard P.O. that is used by the campus. However, these are often insufficient for purposes of soliciting bids. For any given bid solicitation, additional provisions may be added whenever needed, and some of the General Provisions in the Exhibit selected for use may be deleted if they are not applicable. However, none of the General Provisions that appear on the set selected for use may be altered, and none that are required under statute or State regulations may be deleted.
PCC 10307; CSU CRL.
3.04 Posting of Solicitation Notices:
Public notice of the intent to formally purchase on the open market shall be posted in a location easily accessible to any bidder who may wish to participate in the bidding. Complete copies of the bid solicitation are to be maintained in the campus Purchasing Office and made available to any bidder upon request. The solicitation notice may also include an announcement in an appropriate newspaper of trade journal, including a brief description of the commodity, the closing date and time for bids to be received, and the location where complete copies of the bid documents may be obtained.
PCC 10302, CSU Policy 302.01.
3.05 Orders to Campus Stores for Office Supplies:
Campus Stores exists for the benefit and convenience of CSULB. It maintains an inventory of many common and frequently requested office supplies. All office supplies must be ordered through the Campus Stores office, if available. The cost to process a purchase order for small-dollar office supply requisitions invariably offsets any savings that would otherwise result by ordering from Campus Stores. All requests for office supplies shall be placed on Campus Stores Supply Order Forms whenever Campus Stores carries the desired items in inventory. For office supplies not stocked in Campus Stores nor listed in the outside supply vendor’s catalog, requesters may prepare a requisition, mark it “not stocked in Campus Stores”, and transmit it to the Purchasing Office for processing. . Purchasing Office staff members who process these requisitions may nevertheless attach a special form and routinely re-route the requisitions to Campus Stores if it is determined that the office supplies requested are indeed carried in stock.
PSS 92-07, 94-06.
3.06 Orders to State Stores:
Requisitions for office supplies and other items that are carried by State Stores (a Division of the State Dept. of General Services) shall be routed via the appropriate order form to State Stores by those in the Purchasing Office who process requisitions, whenever such routing is justified by cost savings and the order cannot be filled by Campus Stores.
PSS 94-02.
3.07 Orders to Forty-Niner Shops:
When a requisition contains items that cannot be furnished by Campus Stores, placement of the order with the Forty-Niner Shops (a non-State entity) becomes an option. Orders that can be fulfilled by the Forty-Niner Shops are not subject to competitive bidding since the transportation cost, delivery time, and convenience are factors that need to be considered. For formal orders, the Forty-Niner Shops may also be invited to bid for the requested product or service whenever it is available from multiple sources. Copier service is also available. Requisitions routed as orders to the Forty-Niner Shops shall clearly specify how delivery is to be made: If the items are to be delivered to Central Receiving the correct FOB designation on the order is “Destination Prepaid.” It the items are to be picked up by the requester, the correct FOB designation is “Pick-up by CSULB.”
PSS 95-20, 99-02.
3.08 Restricted Purchases:
The purchase of certain products and substances in general is expressly prohibited by the university. Authority to purchase certain other items is restricted to designated offices and/or individuals. The Purchasing Office periodically distributes lists of these items and issues notices of other items being added to the list or (occasionally) items being removed from the list. Some of these items that are prohibited or restricted include, but are not limited to, live animals, two-way radio equipment and licensed frequencies, fire extinguishers, radioactive materials, X-ray Machines, hazardous substances such as solvents, toxic materials, and chemicals, ethyl alcohol, narcotics and dangerous drugs, firearms and other weapons, precious metals, and explosives.
CSU Policy 205(4); PSS 92-14, 95-50, 98-17, 98-19.
3.09 Direct Receipts of Commodities by Requesters:
Requesters receive items directly from a vendor in two (2) ways: (1) Requester or requester’s department picks up the item, (2) Vendor delivers directly to the requester’s department without going through Central Receiving. The requestor or requester’s department may pick up an item directly from a vendor whenever such action is appropriate, but the pick up must be denoted on the confirming requisition submitted to the Purchasing Office as “FOB: Pick-up by CSULB.” Pick-up notification is required whether the vendor is an on-campus (i.e., Forty-Niner Shops) or off-campus vendor. Failure to make this notation can result in either a non-shipment or a double shipment of the item. Whenever the requester or requester’s department receives the item directly, Central Receiving must be immediately notified of the receipt. A failure to notify can result in a late payment to the vendor and a late payment penalty charge against the university.
PSS 95-19.
3.10 Multiple Requisitions Merged as a Single P.O.:
Two or more requisitions shall, when required or when deemed practicable, be merged into a single purchase order. Since the processing of every purchase order incurs a cost factor, this policy is intended to cut administrative processing expenses. Multiple requisition numbers may be combined on a purchase order that is initiated automatically within the electronic purchasing system by the Purchasing staff member assigned to process this group of requisitions. It is sequentially-numbered. Notification must be given to the requester that the requisitions have been combined, and the resulting purchase order number must be divulged.
PSS 93-15, 94-05.
3.11 Vehicle Purchases:
In addition to the normal requirements for purchasing any kind of State personal property, the acquisition of new or used motor vehicles for campus use necessitates additional registration and certification procedures. These procedures are specified within the contents of the California Vehicle Code sections 4000-6100. It is also campus policy to purchase new vehicles utilizing State contracts negotiated by the Department of General Services (DGS) whenever it is practical. Exceptions may be made on the basis of an emergency or the availability of a more favorable price for a vehicle that closely approximates the specifications of the vehicle for which the State is under contract. When a State contract is not used, vehicles shall be procured by a method that documents reasonableness of price. This may be via solicitation of bids, or by the use of reciprocal “cooperative” contracts executed by other governmental or public entities. All campus vehicle purchases where a State contract is not used must be approved by the Associate Vice President for Financial Management.
Vehicle Code 4000-6200; CSU Policy 303.02; PSS 96-14, 96-14a.
3.12 Hazardous Materials:
Purchases of hazardous materials are restricted by the university to those offices and individuals only that are specifically authorized to do so. The Hazardous Substances Information and Training Act in the California Labor Code specifies that purchase orders for chemicals, solvents, or other products that may contain any kind of hazardous material include a vendor requirement to furnish a Material Safety Data Sheet for the commodity being purchased.
Labor Code 6360-6399.7; CSU Policy 303.03.
3.13 Library Materials and Information:
Educational materials and information access resources related to campus library services may be purchased without advertising for, (or soliciting) bids. Such materials and resources include books, periodicals, computerized information for library use, educational films, audiovisual materials, test materials, workbooks and instructional computer software. Requesters are encouraged to solicit competitive bids on such materials and resources whenever practical so that opportunities are realized to optimize potential cost savings and benefits to the campus.
CSU Policy 303.04.
3.14 Prohibition on Commodities Produced by Slave Labor:
Every contract (or purchase order) for the procurement of State or campus equipment, materials, or supplies, other than those related to public works contracts, shall specify that no foreign-made equipment, materials, or supplies furnished to the State or campus pursuant to the contract may be produced in whole or in part by forced labor, convict labor, or indentured labor, under penal sanction. The contractor (or vendor) shall agree to comply with this provision of the contract (or purchase order).
PCC 6108; CSU Policy 303.05.
3.15 Recycled Products:
The State of California has set legislative goals and guidelines for the procurement of recycled products by State agencies and the CSU. The CSULB Purchasing Office must report recycled product acquisitions for the campus in eight categories: (1) paper products which include, but are not limited to, fine papers, such as xerographic and envelope papers and form bond, corrugated boxes, newsprint, tissue, and toweling, (2) compost and co-compost products, (3) glass, (4) oil, (5) plastic, (6) solvents, and paint, including water-based paint, (7) tires, and (8) steel. Annual data for these categories is gathered by the California Integrated Waste Management Board under the State Agency Buy Recycled Campaign (SABRC).
Purchases of materials, goods, and supplies that are recycled or have recycled material within their content shall be given preference whenever fitness and quality are equal and the cost of such products is no greater than that of their non-recycled counterparts. Requisition processing staff in the Purchasing Office are required to ensure the purchase of materials, goods, and supplies that may be recycled or reused when discarded, whenever it is feasible to do so.
Vendors and contractors are required to certify in writing the minimum percentage, if not the exact percentage, of post-consumer and secondary material in the materials, goods, (or supplies) provided or used. This certification shall be furnished under penalty of perjury, per PCC 12205.
The Purchasing Office maintains a library of recycled-content products and suppliers, and will inform end-users when a comparable recycled-content product is available. End-users must inquire about recycled-content alternatives to these products when placing confirming orders.
All State agencies and CSU campuses are required to prepare annually both a preceding fiscal year’s recycling acquisition activity data report and the current fiscal year’s recycling product procurement plan. All CSU campuses, including CSULB, are to submit these by September 1 of each year to the Chancellor’s Office CS&P Department for consolidation into a systemwide report that is forwarded on to the California Integrated Waste Management Board by October 1. Activity and projected activity is to be reported for all eight categories of recycled product acquisitions.
CSULB is committed to meeting the procurement goals for recycled-content products. The commitment goes beyond meeting statistical quotas. It is a commitment to bring the recycling process full circle. It is important to buy the products that have been produced using the tons of materials that Californians have diverted away from landfills. The lead must be taken in maximizing the procurement of recycled-content products in order to create an ongoing demand for recycled materials. When that has been successfully accomplished, the price of recycled-content products will drop, and the recycling process will truly be an unbroken circle.
PCC 12150-12226; CSU POLICY 303.01; PSS 95-02, 95-03, 95-32.
3.16 Purchases of Paper Stock:
CSULB supports the intent of the State legislature to specifically give preference, wherever feasible, to the purchase of paper products containing recycled paper. Preference shall be given to recycled paper products when such products can be substituted for, and cost no more than, non-recycled paper products and when the recycled paper products meet all applicable State standards and regulations. To encourage the use of post-consumer material in recycled products, campus specifications require recycled paper product contracts to be awarded to the bidder whose paper product contains the greater percentage of post-consumer material if the fitness and quality and price meet the State’s requirements.
Vendors are not always consistent with the unit of measure used to quote, ship and invoice. This can cause confusion. It is necessary that the vendor be specifically asked “what unit of measure do you use in shipping and in invoicing?” The response should be understood, and be used to ensure that the particular unit specified is used on the requisition and the purchase order.
PCC 10855-10860, 12160-12164.5; CSU Policy 303.01; PSS 95-30.
3.17 Two and Three-Way Matching of P.O. Copies:
The matching of purchase order and invoice copies is one of the basic and routine steps in the process of ordering and paying for acquisitions. In essence this step is designed to assure that delivery has been made, that the items received are the items ordered, and that the price is correct, prior to payment being remitted to the vendor. The three entities normally involved with this process are the Purchasing Office, Central Receiving, and Accounts Payable. Accounts Payable, since it receives the invoice from the vendor, performs a three-way match of the invoice to (1) its copy of the purchase order and (2) a second copy of the purchase order from Central Receiving showing that the item has been received.
A confirming order made by a requester, where the item is picked up directly from the vendor, does not require a three-way match of purchase order copies to the invoice since the item is not delivered to central receiving by the vendor. It requires only a two-way match of the invoice against its own copy of the purchase order. The requester’s Division Fiscal Officer must notify Accounts Payable that the goods or services have been received. This is normally done by completing an Authorization To Pay form, or approving & signing the invoice.
The designation of a proper “purchasing type” code on the order is partly dependent upon knowing whether the item being purchased is being routed through Central Receiving or has been picked up by (or delivered directly to) the requester. It is important that the confirming order requisition contain this information; otherwise a risk is introduced that the order will be duplicated (and possibly paid for twice) or that the vendor may not receive payment at all.
PSS 94-21.
3.18 Property Accounting Capitalization Requirements:
There are certain items of State tangible property that are required to be shown on the accounting records as capitalized assets and therefore be included in the campus’s financial balance sheet. Such items (with some exceptions for items identified as “sensitive” by their responsible custodians) must meet the following three criteria to be so included:
- Have a normal useful life of at least one year;
- Have a unit acquisition cost of at least $5,000;
- Be used to conduct State business.
As property items are purchased that meet these criteria, they are identified as capitalized property by a process called “tagging.” The tagging of these items with a campus identification number helps the campus to keep inventory records of all capitalized property on campus. It is also permits a means of conducting periodic audits (reconciliation) of property holdings on the campus, as well as to help prevent losses. Inevitably, some losses of capitalized property do occur and whenever this happens the loss is recorded by a process that is called a “property survey.” The completion and filing of a property survey form removes the item from the campus’s list of capitalized assets and financial records.
PSS 92-18, 93-21, 97-20, 98-02, 98-06.
3.19 Property Survey Board:
This is a body of campus officials that is collectively assigned the responsibility for assuring the integrity of changes made to the university’s property records. The Board membership usually consists of five persons, each of whom is initially appointed by the Associate Vice President for Financial Management upon the recommendation of other campus officials—ordinarily from the ranks of institutional and instructional Division Executives. The members serve for indefinite terms, until or unless replaced by other appointees. They normally consist of the Associate Vice President for Financial Management, Associate Vice President of Information Management and Analysis, the Assistant to the Vice President of Fiscal Operations, Assistant to the Vice President for Academic Affairs, and the Director of Procurement and Support Services. Additional members can be added whenever necessary or appropriate.
The Board reviews Surveys, Transfers, Donations, and other transactions as necessary to ensure that the best interests of the State, CSU, and campus are served. It convenes as necessary and normally at the call of the Vice President for Financial Management. It may conduct all necessary business without formally convening (i.e., transactions may be routed through appropriate members). Action may be taken or a decision rendered upon common resolution of a minimum of two (2) Board members, unless a formal Board meeting has been convened and then a majority of the members must agree to the action or decision.
PSS 94-16.
3.20 Missing or Stolen Property Items:
The campus Office of Public Safety and the campus Property Office must both be notified of any missing or stolen university property. The notifications must be given by submitting a “Missing or Stolen Item Report” form (using the same reference number) to both offices. This Report form must be submitted in addition to any other form that is submitted such as a “Police Report””, “Incident Report”, or “Property Survey.”
PSS 96-03.
3.21 P.O.s Designed for Ordering from Various Suppliers:
Normally, one (1) purchase order should have one (1) vendor. The campus electronic purchasing system (computerized ordering) does not accommodate other methodologies of ordering. However, circumstances arise on rare occasions when a single order (of less than $10,000 for commodities or less than $50,000 for services) could be used for multiple suppliers in order to control administrative processing costs. An order for multiple suppliers becomes practical, for example, to arrange for small-item repair parts, artist’s models, test proctors, and other frequently-ordered small items or temporary short-term services. Whenever the need for such an order arises, the Procurement Officer must first be advised so that special arrangements can be made to encumber the total amount of anticipated expenditures under a single encumbrance and then to make payments to the individual suppliers as they become due. The multiple vendor order is called a “dummy order.” It accommodates the electronic purchasing system’s nuance of requiring one supplier only for each order.
PSS 93-06, 94-08.
3.22 Freight Shipment Charges:
The cost of freight is routinely added to the total cost of all items listed on a purchase order before the encumbrance is established. The majority of vendors bill only once for the freight charges (as a total, even though multiple shipments are scheduled). If multiple shipments are to be made by the vendor and each shipment is to be billed separately, it is important that Central Receiving make a note of it and keep the Accounts Payable office advised that further freight charges are forthcoming. As a State agency, the CSU may take advantage of any State agreements established for the purpose of cutting costs via reduced shipping rates.
Outgoing shipments from the campus are rarities, but there are times when they must be made. While the campus Central Receiving area is neither equipped nor staffed to regularly arrange for and process outgoing shipments, it can act as a holding area where items may be dropped off and held until a carrier or trucking line arrives to pick them up. Five days advance notice should be given for any holding request made, so that space can be arranged adequately and a proper record can be made in advance to help avoid losing track of the item(s). A “Request For Outgoing Freight” form must accompany all shipments. For materials that were shipped wrong, damaged, or over-shipped by a vendor, the vendor must be contacted to furnish a Return Material Authorization (RMA) form prior to shipment being made. The RMA also entails the furnishing of call tags to identify each package being returned. If Facilities Management is requested to move the item(s) to the Central Receiving area, a Work Order form must be completed and submitted 5-7 working days in advance of the date that the move is to be performed. Special situations with extenuating circumstances can be handled on an emergency basis.
PSS 94-04, 94-14, 96-26.
