5.6 Purchasing Policy.
The Board should set out a Purchasing Policy which complies with the terms of the Administrative and Financial Guidelines, Sections 10 and 11.
With regard to purchases, it is recommended that the Board of Management should authorise the Principal to approve purchases up to an agreed limit. Purchases up to that level could be made without the prior approval of the Board, but more costly purchases would require the Board’s prior approval.
In particular, it should be noted that a competitive tendering process is required:
- where the total value of annual purchases is in excess of €6500.
- in the case of a one-off purchase of €6500 or more.
In other cases, beyond a limit set by the Board, a minimum of three quotations should be sought, and in the case of service/maintenance work comparative prices should be obtained occasionally.
A request for payment for goods and services should be supported by:
- requisition form signed by the person initiating the request for the purchase,
- an approved duly signed order form,
- evidence of satisfactory receipt of goods, services,
- an approved invoice which is in accord with the foregoing.
Both signatories of the cheque issued in payment of the invoice should satisfy themselves that the invoice has been properly processed and that the approval of payment is justified.
When an invoice is paid it should be stamped “paid” and filed in such a way as to ensure that a duplicate of it could not be approved subsequently for payment.