Articles

Now is the time to strongly encourage your internal customers to submit requisitions and specifications for any procurements to be made from grant funds that expire June 30, 2005.
What’s the hurry?

The reason to begin grant procurements at this time of year is they typically take much longer than standard procurements. Beginning these procurements now will enable you to complete them before the next fiscal year-end when the grants may expire.

Additionally, grant procurements typically have stringent federal or state procurement requirements and require more lead-time. In addition, materials and equipment purchased by grants must often be ordered and received by the expiration of the grant.

Additional procurement requirements. Grants generally contain procurement requirements that are additional to and more stringent than your agency’s procurement regulations.

Such requirements are included in the grant itself, usually under a heading such as; Procurement Regulations.

Depending on the entity that awarded the grant, the procurement may require:

• Publication in newspapers targeted to reach minority, women-owned, veteran-owned, or disadvantaged businesses
• Publication a minimum of 30 days before the bid submittal deadline
• Approval of the solicitation by the granting entity before it is distributed to interested businesses
• Distribution of the solicitation to a certain percentage of disadvantaged or other types of businesses
• Inclusion in the solicitation of federal or state regulations (which you must find) Compliance with any number of “circulars” containing updated regulations
• Approval of the award by the entity that issued the grant, before your agency awards the contract
• Award by your governing body
• Receipt of the materials or equipment before the expiration of the grant

Copyright © 2004 by Karen Theriault, Esq., C.P.M.