Yes, it is possible that the same firm provides both consulting and professional services on financial management.
Whether a service in question is deemed consulting service should be determined by the nature of the service being procured and not by the designated profession being represented.
Each department will have to assess these scenarios on a case by case basis. Please refer to the PSDoc.2001 Bill 122- Consulting vs Non-Consulting Services April 2011, on what are professional services and what are consulting.
The differentiating factor between professional services and consulting is whether the service is mostly “thinking” and whether it is strategic versus tactical in nature.
The scenario of “exceptionally advantageous circumstances” refers to the circumstances of taking advantage of the rare opportunities such as the supplier is in situation of bankruptcy or receivership. Getting a good discount as result of negotiation doesn’t fall into this category.
Negotiation is an effective way in seeking better value from suppliers but cannot justify single source or sole source.
No. The written responses from the two suppliers declining to quote along with the one quote you received can be attached with your requisition to justify your supplier selection.
However, when we select suppliers to participate in our competitive process, we should use our best judgement in the screening process so that the suppliers who have reasonable possibility to respond effectively to our request are invited.
Yes. Minimum of two signatures are required on the Single Source/Sole Source form before it’s forwarded to Purchasing Services. If the requestor happens to be the same person as who has the signing authority to approve the Single Source/Sole Source, such as the department chair, a higher level approval is required.
The delegate can sign off the Single Source/Sole Source form only when:
A.The department signing authority has delegated him/her under Financial Services’ General policy GE 5.0 - Delegation of Authority for Commitment of University Funds upon Budget Allocation, and
B.The department authority is not available at the time of request.
If the agreement between the funding agency and the University requires us to use a specific supplier, a Single Source/Sole Source Certification may be used to justify this decision. In general, if the agreement between the funding agencies and the University includes rules for awarding contracts that differ from the requirement of competitive procurement set out in the Directive, the stricter rules should apply.
