Purchasing and Business Services Manual (PUR)

Effective: 3/1/1965

Revised:7/1/2010

PUR 303–03: Preparation of Specifications and Response Evaluation Criteria

Purpose

To establish responsibility for preparing specifications and developing evaluation criteria for bidder responses

Source

Purchasing and Business Services

Policy

Purchasing and Business Services is responsible for issuing solicitations for the procurement of goods and services. Solicitations include invitations to bid (ITB), Requests for Proposal (RFP), or any other requests for prices, including all supporting documents. Purchasing and Business Services and the requesting department share responsibility for preparing specifications (a component of the solicitation), as well as developing evaluation criteria.

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Areas of Responsibility

Terms and Conditions

Purchasing and Business Services is primarily responsible for the terms and conditions of the solicitation.

Specifications

Although Purchasing and Business Services and the requesting department share responsibility for the specifications, the requesting department is primarily responsible for developing the technical or performance specifications of a solicitation.

Specifications must be written with a view to securing goods or services with the appropriate quality for the particular procurement. Only the grade or degree of goods that will meet, but not exceed, the requirements will be purchased by the university.

Fairness

Specifications must be written fairly and equitably and must not be:

1. unduly restrictive
2. prejudicial to any supplier

   or

3. a basis for just complaint from any competitive bidder.

Specificity

The descriptor “brand name or equal” may be used in specifications as a means of defining performance or other salient requirements of a procurement. When the descriptor “brand name or equal” is used, the specific features of the named brand that are required must be clearly identified so that it is clear what would make a competing product an “equal.”

Where brand name only is desired, the requestor shall justify in writing the reasons for specifying a particular brand name through the respective buyer to the director of Purchasing and Business Services. This document will be retained in the bid file.

Energy Conservation Considerations

In developing specifications for items that have a high rate of energy consumption, consideration must be given to energy conservation. When purchasing items from categories in which Energy Star-qualified products exist, the university will make Energy Star compliance a mandatory specification. Refer to http://www.energystar.gov for more information on the Energy Star program.

Response Evaluation Criteria

Purchasing and Business Services and the requesting department share responsibility for developing the evaluation criteria for the responses to an RFP. The evaluation criteria should include a method for scoring vendor responses against specific criteria.

A method for scoring each evaluation criterion will simplify the evaluation process and enable the response evaluator(s) to explain why any responding firm was or was not selected. Examples of evaluation criteria based on a five-point scale are available on the Purchasing and Business Services Web site.

Cross-References

For related information on procurement, see PUR 303–01, “Purchase Requests.”

For related information on the solicitation process, see:

1. PUR 305–01, “Bidding Requirements for Procurements Costing Less than $25,000”
2. PUR 305–02, “Bidding Requirements for Procurements Costing at Least $25,000 but Less than $50,000”

   and

3. PUR 306–01, “Bidding Requirements for Procurements Costing $50,000 or More.”

For further information on information provided to vendors, see the policies in PUR 501, “Vendor Information/Advertising.”

For further information on selection of vendors, see the policies in PUR 502, “Vendor Selection.”

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