No purchase shall be ARTIFICIALLY DIVIDED so as to constitute a small purchase under
$10,000 or to reduce a solicitation to a lesser or no bid requirement. In the absence
of a good faith business basis, no purchase or procurement shall be artificially divided
within a budget unit, or its equivalent. 

Artificially Divided Defined

Executive Order JBE 2020-21 authorizes the governor to establish procedures for the procurement of small purchases
with the caveat that “procurement requirements shall not be artificially divided so
as to constitute a small purchase under this Section.” In other words, a budget unit
cannot submit two or more requisitions to the same vendor or similar vendors in order
to avoid competitive bid requirements or to avoid the formal solicitation of competitive
sealed bids.

 

Executive Order JBE 2020-21 establishes the following small purchase requirements:

• Purchases up to $10,000 – no competitive bidding is required (Administration does look for faculty and staff to exercise due diligence and comparison
  price purchases for lowest cost.)

• Purchases over $10,000 to $20,000 – informal quote to at least 3 sources

• Purchases over $20,000 to $30,000 – written or fax bid to at least 5 sources

 

Artificial division of purchases can be outlined as follows: 

1.  Budget unit submitting two or more requisitions of $10,000 each or less for the
identical commodity on the same day or within the same week. 

Example: (1) desk @ $8,000 & (1) desk @ $7,000 received 2/21/2007 

2.  Budget unit submitting two or more requisitions of $10,000 each or less to the same
vendor on the same day or within the same week. 

Example: (1) desk @ $8,000 to Acme Office Company received 4/13/2007

(1) chair @ $7,000 to Acme Office Company received 4/15/2007 

3.  Budget unit submitting two or more requisitions of $10,000 each or less to similar
vendors* for identical or similar commodities** on the same day or within the same
week. 

Example: (2) balances = $7,000 to Acme Scientific received 5/16/2007

(8) beakers = $2,100 to Wholesale Lab Supply received 5/16/2007

(9) thermometers = $1,200 to Best Buy Labs received 5/16/2007 

* Similar vendors are suppliers selling products within the same industry category,
i.e., athletic, automotive, data processing, electrical, medical, office, scientific,
etc. 

** Similar commodities are items which possess general characteristics within the
same industry category, i.e., athletic, automotive, data processing, electrical, medical,
office, scientific, etc. 

4.  Budget unit head submitting separate requisitions for the same requester totaling
$10,000 each or less which meet criteria 1, 2 or 3 above. 

5.  Recurring pattern of requisitioning over the course of a fiscal year exceeding $10,000
for the same commodity from the same or similar vendors*. 

 

The Purchasing Department will combine requisitions it interprets in possible violation
of the Executive Order and it will solicit the necessary bids unless the requisition
is accompanied by a suitable explanation (Artificial Division Exception Form) for dividing a purchase. In a few cases there are daily or weekly reoccurrences of
small non-competitive purchases necessary to perform unanticipated remedial maintenance.
However, such exceptions are to be handled with a prior Purchasing approved purchase
requisition.