title
Increase the Town's Micro-Purchase Threshold.
body
Staff:
Department:
Amy Oland, Director
Business Management
Zakia Alam, Purchasing & Contracts Manager
Overview: The purpose of this item is to provide background information on the Town's procurement practices related to the expenditure of federal funds, to discuss changes in the federal procurement thresholds, and to offer a recommendation to increase the Town's micro-purchase thresholds (informal and non-competitive procurement method).
Recommendation(s):
That the Council adopt the resolution authorizing an increase in the Town's micro-purchase thresholds related to the expenditure of federal funds.
Key Issues:
On August 13, 2020, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) published revisions to the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (the "Uniform Guidance"). Among other things, the revisions to the Uniform Guidance allow non-Federal entities to raise, via annual self-certification, the micro-purchase threshold to a "higher threshold consistent with State law".
Many units of local government in North Carolina receive federal funding subject to the procurement standards in Subpart D of the Uniform Guidance. Those procurement standards follow three categories of procurement methods:
1) Informal procurement -goods or services that cost up to $250,000
2) Formal procurement -goods or services that cost $250,000 or more
3) Noncompetitive procurement - micro-purchase, single source, emergency, express approval by federal awarding agency, or inadequate competition after solicitation
A "micro-purchase" is both an informal procurement method and a noncompetitive procurement method. When spending federal funds subject to Subpart D, a non-federal entity may, on a noncompetitive basis, acquire supplies or services, the aggregate dollar amount of which does not exceed the "micro-purchase threshold" (as defined in the Uniform Guidance).
In 2018, OM...
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