Purchasing Guidelines

Purchasing in the strongly regulated state environment can be complicated. We are here to serve as a resource for you to help interpret the regulations and offer solutions to your problems. Sometimes the strict objectivity and rigid process may seem to prevent LSU Health Sciences Center from making the best business decision. Unfortunately, this is a reality in our environment. Some rules of thumb that are good to keep in the forefront of your mind are as follows:

• All Purchases at the LSU Health Science Center require a valid purchase order issued by Purchasing unless the La Carte Procurement Card is used. Any non-La Carte purchases made without a purchase order will be considered unauthorized, and the use of state funds for payment will not be allowed.

• Input from the Purchasing Department can be invaluable in avoiding the most common pitfalls. Please solicit this input as early as possible!

• After competition has been solicited, the award MUST, by law, be made to the lowest qualified bidder, that meets the specifications. Developing good specifications is the key to successful procurements. There are a very limited number of exceptions to this rule, but preference or any other qualitative or subjective measure of the vendors cannot be the basis of the award.

• All quotes should represent the complete acquisition cost for the purchase. This means that an accurate estimate or firm quote of all extra charges (shipping, handling, installation, etc.) is essential. Increases to the purchase order after award, especially if they result in the crossing of a competition threshold, will be scrutinized and potentially denied.

Please visit our main purchasing page for information on some other common areas of confusion in our process. Please don't hesitate to ask your purchasing agent for clarification on any areas that are still unclear.