Procurement Procedures - Chapter 1: Introduction

IN 1 - Introduction

The Procurement Services Department (Procurement Services) provides centralized procurement support to the departments and agencies under the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners (Board) and to the constitutional offices upon request. The mission of Procurement Services is to provide for the procurement of commodities and services in a timely and cost-effective manner and in accordance with Board policy. This manual is intended to provide useful and practical guidance for the procurement of supplies, services, and construction.

IN 2 - Authority

Board Policy 03.06.00.00 (Procurement Policy) establishes the rules and framework for the procurement of all supplies, services and construction projects by departments and agencies under the Board. The Procurement Policy authorizes the Director of Procurement to adopt procedures to govern the procurement of all supplies, services, and construction projects in accordance with the Procurement Policy and applicable directives and laws. Relevant sections of the Procurement Policy are referenced throughout this manual for the purpose of context. The Director of Procurement serves as the central procurement and principal contracting officer of the County.

IN 3 - Role of Procurement Services

Procurement Services is responsible for administering and managing the process of buying supplies, services, and facilitating construction projects, which is a key role in helping each department and agency of the County meet its respective needs. Ultimately, the purchasing process impacts the quality of services that are delivered to citizens and the prosperity of our community. Procurement Services and our clients, share responsibility for the successful procurement of supplies, services, and construction projects.

IN 4 - Service Standards

Our “why” statement represents our purpose—why we do what we do. We are successful when we live up to this statement; we fail when we don’t.

“To serve as trusted advisors who passionately, predictably, and promptly source high-value solutions so that our communities prosper, and lives improve.”

We endeavor to make every procurement a success and exceed our client departments’ and agencies’ expectations. To do this we must:

IN 4.1 Be a Trusted Advisor

• Being a trusted advisor starts with an operational and strategic understanding our clients, which means their customers, services, budgets, priorities, organizational structures, and more. Knowing our clients’ businesses allows us to contextualize their needs and ask the right questions to elicit their requirements. Being procurement experts allows us to shape sound sourcing strategies and guide our clients toward decisions that will best serve their needs. Throughout the process, we demonstrate integrity by always doing the right thing (even when no one is looking) and accountability by taking ownership (even when that means admitting our mistakes). To earn and keep our clients’ trust, we must take the time to build and foster relationships beyond what is professionally required.

IN 4.2 Be Passionate

• Passion is the engine that drives our excellence. When we are passionate, our energy is contagious. Our enthusiasm and can-do attitude make working with us a pleasure. We are undeterred by challenges and treat obstacles as temporary setbacks and opportunities to prevail. We show we care in small and large ways. We take pride in our work and the outcomes we facilitate, while protecting the County and being good stewards of the process and taxpayer dollars.

IN 4.3 Be Predictable

• Our clients seek timely, consistent, high-quality services—every time. We meet this need by defining and following clear procedures, applying a project management discipline to our work, promoting self-service capabilities, and holding ourselves to ambitious and highly transparent performance standards. We proactively set expectations at the start of every procurement or key transaction, and keep our clients and teammates informed throughout the process.

IN 4.4 Be Prompt

• Promptness refers to our responsiveness and the urgency with which we complete our work—in support of meeting our cycle time targets and to demonstrate our commitment to our clients’ operational needs. Promptness requires that we understand priorities and use them to guide our decisions and manage our time.

IN 5 - Principles of Public Procurement

The Board takes the trustworthiness of its procurement program very seriously. Properly executed, there are basic principles of public procurement that provide the foundation for a trustworthy and effective public procurement program. The principles of public procurement are: transparency, integrity, economy, openness, fairness, competition, and accountability.

IN 5.1 Transparency

• Transparency in public procurement means that information regarding the public procurement process must be available to everyone including contractors, suppliers, service providers, and the public at large, unless there is a valid and legal reason for keeping certain information confidential.

IN 5.2 Integrity

• In public procurement, the principle of integrity is two-fold. There is the integrity of the procurement process, and the integrity of public procurement practitioners (the principal guardians of the process).

IN 5.3 Economy

• This principle emphasizes the need to manage public funds responsibly as good stewards—in that the prices paid for goods and services are reasonable and represent good value for the amount of public funds expended on them—in terms of both quality and satisfactorily meeting the need.

IN 5.4 Openness

• The principle of openness must prevail in public procurement. This means that, given the use of public funds, public procurement opportunities must be open to all qualified firms and individuals, and the public must have access to information pertaining to the same.

IN 5.5 Fairness

• Decision-making and resulting actions must be unbiased and there must be no preferential treatment given to any individual(s) or firm(s), given that public procurement activities are undertaken with public funds. All offers must be considered on the basis of their compliance with the terms of the solicitation documents, and an offer must not be rejected for reasons other than those specifically stipulated in the solicitation document. Furthermore, a contract must only be signed with an offeror whose offer is compliant and responds best to the objectives of the published requirements in terms of technical capability and price. Offerors must have the right to challenge the procurement process whenever they feel unfairly treated, and such challenges must be based on the solicitation document and/or the legal parameters of the particular procurement.

IN 5.6 Competition

• The basic idea behind this principle is that competition leads to the most favorable pricing and, in turn, is good for the economy. The public procurement process must never be manipulated to give preference to any particular firm(s) or individual(s).

IN 5.7 Accountability

• Accountability in public procurement essentially means being responsible for our actions and decisions and having the obligation to report and/or answer to the designated oversight entity and the public regarding the consequences of those actions and decisions. As public servants, procurement practitioners and others involved in the public procurement process are accountable and thus exposed to sanctions as a remedy for any behavior that contravenes the public procurement principles and/or legal framework.

IN 6 - Parting Advice

Perception matters. The public has great interest in the County’s procurement activities. Avoid any appearance of impropriety that may cause the public to doubt the integrity of the procurement process. We create and support a culture for trustworthy procurement through transparency, integrity, economy, openness, fairness, competition, and accountability.