On July 1, 2015, new Mississippi laws went into effect requiring that IT sole source purchases undergo a more formalized certification process. This includes advertisement of the intent to award/purchase as a sole source and on-campus verification after the purchase that the items purchased were as approved for purchase. For IT sole source purchases in the range $5001 to $250,000, this process is managed by the university, specifically by the Procurement and Information Technology offices. IT sole source purchases greater than $250,000 are managed by Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (MDITS). More details can be found in the MDITS Procurement Handbook.
To ensure compliance with these new requirements, IT has developed a new form, the IT Sole Source Request, for departments to complete for sole source technology purchases in excess of $5000. The form is located here: olemiss.edu/solesource.
Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services Logo
To help raise awareness about existing and new IT procurement policies, there will be a workshop on Tuesday, September 29, from 9:30 am until 11:30 am in the Yerby Conference Center. Lynn Ainsworth from MDITS will be on campus to help explain these new policies and laws. All employees who participate in technology procurements that are more than $5000 are requested to attend. Please RSVP to Shellie Harrison at shellie@olemiss.edu.
In the meantime, please review the updated Technology Purchases Policy: https://secure4.olemiss.edu/umpolicyopen/ShowDetails.jsp?istatPara=1&policyObjidPara=11343104
The slides from these presentations are available at the following locations:
Tags: procurement, sole source