Effective Monday, Jan. 9, 2017, the procurement officers and procurement officer specialists in Procurement Services became responsible for the intake of procurement contracts. Procurement contracts are those contracts between Northern Illinois University and vendors.
If you initiate a purchase that requires a contract, the buyers may be contacting you if the following information is not sent with the contract:
- Thorough vendor contact information, including full address, contact name, phone number(s), fax numbers and email;
- A full explanation of the work, including a scope of work document from the vendor, if provided, or from you;
- Beginning and end dates of the work;
- Correct funding code(s) and fiscal year.
This new process is the first phase of a change that will shift procurement contract administration from the Office of General Counsel to Procurement Services/Contracts Management (PS/CM). In this first phase, PS/CM has assumed responsibility for managing the contract signature process and distributing executed contracts internally and externally. These changes are intended to make the contract review and approval process more efficient and enhance the focus on the business requirements of contracts.
The approval flow of purchase requisitions and contracts does not change because of this shift in contract responsibility. Requestors will continue to prepare requisitions, have them approved by their cost center manager, and send them for Finance and Budget approval via the Accounts Payable Services Office.
The requisitions will be reviewed by the associate directors of contracts management, Antoinette Bridges or Norma Sutton, assisted by Director of Procurement Services and Strategic Sourcing Michele Danza. If you have questions on PS/CM reporting structure, the following link leads to the Procurement Services organizational chart: http://www.niu.edu/procurement/org-chart.pdf.
Requisitions without contracts will be processed as usual. If you have a question on the requisition process, please see http://www.niu.edu/procurement/forms/.
Contracts not involving vendors will continue to be sent directly to the appropriate University offices (e.g. Office of General Counsel).
As with any major change, there will be a period of transition and adaptation. Procurement Services will appreciate your patience as staff manages this important change.
