Procurement of Consulting Services
- Definition
- Consultant: a person or entity that under an agreement, other than an employment agreement, provides expert or strategic advice and related services for consideration and decision-making.
- Consulting Services: the provision of expertise or strategic advice that is presented for consideration and decision-making.
In order to determine if a procurement should be undertaken for consulting services we need to determine if the scope of work falls within the definition above. It may be possible that a person is brought in as “consultant” to carry out work which does not fall within the definition of consulting services. If this is the case then the rules covering Non-Consulting Services apply.
- Approval Authority Schedule for Procurement of Consulting Services
Procurement Method
|
Procurement Value
|
Approval Authority
|
Invitational Competitive
|
$0 up to but not including $100,000
|
Organization’s AAS for goods and non-consulting services
|
Open Competitive
|
Any value
|
Organization’s AAS for goods and non-consulting services
|
Non-competitive (Exemption-based only)
|
$0 up to but not including $1,000,000
|
President, CEO or equivalent
|
$1,000,000 or more
|
Board of Governors or equivalent
|
Prior to commencement, any procurement of consulting services must be approved in accordance with the Procurement Approval Authority Schedule for Consulting Services above.
Organizations must not reduce the overall value of procurement (e.g. dividing a single procurement into multiple procurements) in order to circumvent the approval requirements for Consulting Services.