The Procurement Policy was last updated on October 10, 2017. Each year the General Assembly makes legislative changes to the Virginia Public Procurement Act (VPPA) which may or may not impact the County’s Procurement Policy. Staff is proposing several updates to our Procurement Policy that will both address 2018 legislation updates and enhance the County’s current procurement process.
Procurement staff worked with staff from the County Attorney’s office to draft the proposed policy changes. We have attached two versions of the proposed Procurement Policy; the first version includes track changes which detail the proposed edits. The second version is a clean copy of the proposed policy.
Highlights of the proposed changes include:
Legislative changes:
·Section 2-9 Exemptions from Competition for Certain Transactions:
New section (u) is added for Virginia-grown food products as required by VA Code 2.2-4343.
·Section 2-22 Public Inspection of Certain Records:
(f) is updated to include new VPPA language regarding trade secrets and proprietary information in bids and proposals.
Enhancements:
·Changed “Code of Virginia” and “VA Code” to “Virginia Code” for consistency throughout the policy.
·Section 1-4 Competitive Bidding:
Corrected Invitation to Bid to Invitation for Bid and added “IFB”
·Section 1-4 Competitive Negotiation:
(a) added “RFP” after Request for Proposal.
(2) increased $500 to $1,500 (new requested single quote limit) and makes it clear that small purchasing procedures (quotes) as stated in Section 2-8 of the policy shall apply for the purchase of professional services less than $50,000. The updated language reflects the requirements of the VPPA.
·Section 1-6 Delegation of Authority:
Added “or designee (Senior Procurement Officer or Finance Director) for the Procurement Manager. Department Director’s authority is increased from $15,000 to $30,000 to be in alignment with the new requested spending limits stated in Section 2-8 of the policy.
·Section 2-3 Contract Requirements and Review:
(b) $500 limit increased to the new requested $1,500 single quote limit.
·Section 2-8 Competition:
Increased small dollar purchasing limits and updated references to policy sections.
The County’s current small dollar purchasing limits have been in place for over 15 years. Increasing the small dollar limits (purchases below $50,000) will increase efficiencies for all County departments and will bring the County’s limits into better alignment with limits across the Commonwealth. The new limits will still be well below surrounding localities (i.e. County’s current $500 limit increased to $1,500 is compared to $5,000 by others). Increasing the limits now will also benefit the implementation of the new Finance software system, “One-Solution”. With the approval of the new limits staff can build electronic work-flows and processes now instead of making changes after the go-live date. Staff can be trained on the new spending limits and in early 2019 will receive new system training that will be in alignment with the Procurement Policy. The new system will also allow staff the ability to review documents more easily and efficiently to ensure compliance throughout the year for small dollar purchases.
(g) updated requirements of Vehicle Surplus Forms to be submitted to Joint Fleet Services.
·Section 2-9 Exceptions to Competition:
Renamed to “Exemptions from Competition for Certain Transactions” to match the VPPA section title.
Deleted (d) for contracts and purchases by the Economic Development Authority (EDA) and created a new footnote for purchases made by the EDA and updated language to reflect all required Virginia Code sections.
Language in (h) and (i) updated to match the VPPA requirements for Sole Source and Emergency procurement postings and makes it clear when postings are required to be posted on the Procurement Division website. The “or designee (Senior Procurement Officer or Finance Director) language is added for the Procurement Manager.
(i) Emergency procurements is updated to add more clarifying language for approval requirements.
·Section 3-1 Modification of a Contract:
(a) updated to increase the limit from 10% to the VPPA allowable 25% for modifications to contracts. Increasing the limit to 25% will bring greater efficiencies for modifying contracts. The 25% limit will match the School Systems policy limits and will help in continuing efforts with Joint Procurements between the County and Schools when joint contracts require modifications. The increased limit is also in alignment with many surrounding localities who have adopted the VPPA allowable limit.
(b) new language is added to detail the process of contract Change Orders requirements. The requirements detailed in the policy are the processes that have been in place but are not currently detailed in the policy.
·Section 6-1 Sale of Surplus Property:
added “Effective, July 1, 2018: Joint Fleet Services shall be responsible for the surplus of County owned vehicles. Departments shall submit a Vehicle Surplus Form to Joint Fleet Services.”