Employee Purchasing Policy

Absolutely no departmental purchase for goods or services should be made by any employee, other than Purchasing Personnel. It is mandatory that all purchases comply with the Louisiana Procurement Laws. Failure to comply with these rules may result in, the employee making the purchase, responsible for payment of the unapproved purchase, and/or disciplinary action.

All requests for purchases should be routed to your Department Head or his designee to obtain approval, and enter a requisition into the Munis Requisition System.

Each requisition should contain a complete description of the material or service required. Care should be taken that each requisition lists only items that can be furnished by one supplier. For example, don.t issue one requisition for furniture and printing (one requisition . one supplier).

All requests for purchases and services, regardless of the sources of funding, must be processed through the Purchasing Department on a requisition to obtain a purchase order. No purchase order will be issued if a purchase has already been made.

Check Requests are to be used only for special circumstances such as reimbursement for travel and education.

The Purchasing Department will review all check requests. Check requests will be rejected and returned to the Department if a requisition was avoided to bypass the procurement policy. The Purchasing Staff are the only authorized personnel to make commitments to Vendors relating to purchases, services, leases, etc.

Requisitioning departments are encouraged to suggest sources of supply for unusual items. The final selection of the supplier shall be left to the Purchasing Department.

The purchasing department maintains credit cards for Walmart, Office Depot, CVS (Eckard) and Sears which are used for emergency situations when there is a need but exact quantities and materials are not known in advance. Department heads furnish purchasing with a list of individuals from their departments that are authorized to check out credit cards from purchasing to purchase items for their department. If the individuals that are authorized to check out credit cards are absent at the time that the card is needed the department head can fill out and furnish to purchasing the "Approval of Credit Card Use" form which allows the individual named on the form a one time use of the card. Use of these credit cards should be limited. All standard purchasing procedures (requisitions, P.O.'s, etc) are still required and all paperwork from the credit card transaction is to be turned in to purchasing the day of the transaction, or in case of something picked up later in the day, by the close of business the next business day.

Under no circumstances shall there be a division or separation of any procurement or public works project (requests divided into two or more requisitions) into smaller procurements or projects, which division or separation would have effect of avoiding the Public Bid Process, which would be a Violation of the Public Bid Law.

Pre-Planning

The necessity for departments to pre-plan supplies and equipment needs cannot be over emphasized. The time required to issue an order and secure delivery after receipt of a properly prepared and approved requisition in the Purchasing Department varies greatly. The workload at any given time within the Purchasing Department is also a factor.

Account Number Classification

The general ledger account number has been established so that the use of a specific code signifies a certain category of expense.

All requisitions that indicate incorrect account numbers will be rejected and routed back to the department.

Conflict of Interest

No elected official or public employee or member of such public servant's immediate family, or legal entity in which he has a controlling interest shall bid on or enter into any contract, subcontract, or other transaction that is under the supervision or jurisdiction of the public servant's agency (as defined by Section 1101(2) of the code). Any violation of this policy by a city employee is just cause for disciplinary action which may result in termination.