Bidding

Purchases totaling more than $25,000 but less than $99,999 or purchases of items with a unit price* between $5,000 and $99,999 require a minimum of three written bids (Federal Awards or other funding may require bidding for lower purchase amounts).  Written bids can be obtained through email quotes from vendors, as well as price lists, catalogs, advertisements and other reasonable means.  Vendor declines or failures to respond to bid requests, while infrequent, can be deemed a written bid, but must be documented.

Construction and renovation projects totaling $25,000 or less where there is little advantage to requiring and obtaining multiple bids will not require competitive bidding procedures.  Timeliness, the inability to get multiple bids, or the availability of quality contractors may all be determining factors on whether or not to seek multiple bids for construction and renovation projects totaling less than $25,000.

Purchases or contractual agreements totaling $100,000 or more require a Request for Proposal, unless the purchase is for an item with a unit cost that exceeds $100,000 which will only require 3 written bids.

All purchases that require bids must be approved in advance by a member of Executive Leadership.

A sole source procurement is a purchase made without following the competitive bidding process based on the justification that only one known source exists or that only one single supplier can fulfill the requirement.  Sole source purchases are extremely unusual. Sole source procurements require Executive Leadership approval in advance of the purchase.

Bidding requirements do not apply to purchases made using any state contract or through a group purchasing organization where the bidding process has already been completed.  State Contracts can be searched by navigating to https://archive.oa.mo.gov/purch/contracts/.

Awards must be made to the respondent(s) providing the best overall value.  Records must be retained to document the rationale for the method of procurement, bidder selection or rejection, and the basis for the bid price. Order splitting to avoid bidding requirements is prohibited.

*Unit price is defined as the total invoice cost per item and shall include shipping costs and any other integral item cost that are part of the item being purchased and included in the total invoice.  If shipping is billed by a third-party common carrier and not billed by the vendor the product is purchased from, shipping will be excluded from the unit cost.

LINE OF AUTHORITY

Responsible administrator or office: Business Office

Contact person in that office: Jenny Jacobs

EFFECTIVE DATE: August 16, 2023

Approved by President: August 16, 2023