General Overview

The purchasing function at Loyola is governed by strict regulatory requirements established at federal, state, and local levels, as well as internally.  Policies and procedures meet standards set by these laws and statutes.   Key legislation related to purchasing requirements for non-federal entities receiving federal awards is found in the Uniform Guidance (UG) set by the US Office of Management and Budget's (OMB) Code of Federal Regulations, and can be found at www.ecfr.gov.

Loyola is required to document the basis of its procurement, including vendor selection.  Those procedures can be found in the sections on Pre-Qualified Suppliers on this site, as well as in the Buyers Action Matrix (https://www.luc.edu/media/lucedu/purchasing/pdfs/buyer_matrix.pdf).

A key part of our Policy notes that Micro-purchases (where the aggregate dollar amount doesn't exceed $5,000) do not require competitive quotes if the price is determined by management to be reasonable.  Small Purchases (up to the Simplified Acquisition Threshold of $250,000) require a minimum of three quotes.  For purchases over $250,000, a formal solicitation of competitive proposals is needed.  Note that UG no longer accepts "continuity of research” as justification to designate a supplier as a sole source.  For questions, please contact purchasing@luc.edu.