Procurement/Purchasing
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The Office of Sponsored Programs Procurement unit maintains a federally approved procurement system for the purchase of all equipment, supplies and services funded by awards, grants and contracts, and State of Ohio Action and Hayes Investment funds administered by the Office of Sponsored Programs.
Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) Procurement Unit Roles and Responsibilities:
RF Procurement is responsible for establishing and maintaining adequate procurement policies, procedures and ethical standards based on federal and state laws and regulations and sponsor and university guidelines. The RF Procurement unit receives all requisitions for purchase requests funded either entirely by sponsored projects and those that contain university or third party cost sharing from the Ohio Board of Regents Action and Investment fund programs. The RF Procurement unit then approves, prepares and issues RF purchase orders to suppliers and subcontractors. RF Procurement also administers the RF procurement card and the RF delegated requisitioner and delegated buyer programs.
All RF buyers are assigned a specific commodity list.
All electronic requisitions for sponsored projects entered into the university’s procurement system are routed to the a buyer by the commodity code selected on the requisition.
RF buyers perform the following functions:
- screen each purchase request to ensure allowability and reasonableness of cost
- seek internal approvals for items that fail budget checking or other screening criteria
- obtain “best” pricing
- negotiate prices, discounts, and payment terms
- perform cost analysis and determine if requests for quotes (RFQs) or requests for proposals (RFPs) are necessary
- prepare purchase orders
RF Buyers assist principal investigators with all activities associated with their purchased orders from beginning to end. This includes follow up on delayed shipments, returns and credits, resolution of invoicing and match exception issues and follow up on outstanding commitments on terminated projects.
Other RF Procurement unit services include:
- providing source and price information
- promoting the usage of and reporting expenditures to small, disadvantaged and other business size types where required
- monitoring subcontract and blanket orders for time and funds availability
- preparing and processing capital equipment requests and seek State Controlling Board approval for Ohio Board of Regents Action and Investment funded procurements
- monitoring the receipt of RF procurement card receipts and statements
