Overview

Harvard invests its employees with a great deal of autonomy and trusts them to act responsibly and to make decisions based on the best interests of the University.

Purchasing at Harvard is decentralized. Most buying decisions are made by faculty and staff in the schools and departments. As a Harvard employee with purchasing responsibilities, you have the freedom to make your own purchasing choices. Harvard expects you to make sound purchasing decisions that will ensure the continued and efficient operation of the University.

The Harvard University Procurement Management Department is committed to helping you get the most out of every procurement dollar. We help by establishing vendor partnerships for major commodities. These partnerships have been negotiated by Procurement Management with the cooperation of the faculties using the full benefit of the University's considerable buying power.

By ordering from the vendor partners whenever possible, you get lower prices and exceptional vendor service. You will also save ordering/sourcing time and reduce administrative expenses. The current partnerships available to you are located on the Vendor Partners page.

When you initiate a purchase, you are committing University funds and assuring the University that you:

• identified a legitimate need for your purchase
• competitively bid or negotiated your purchases, when appropriate
• met Federal procurement requirements
• complied with the Conflict of Interest and Code of Ethics
• selected qualified vendors
• dealt with vendors professionally
• received and inspected your purchases
• sourced minority and women-owned vendors
• met documentation requirements to support your purchase
• will process your invoices promptly

The primary purpose of this manual is to give you a general understanding of good purchasing practices so that you can buy on behalf of the University with confidence and expertise. Some departments have very comprehensive purchasing procedures. You should be familiar with these procedures and adapt the guidelines presented in this manual to the requirements of your individual departments when necessary. This manual also explains Federal procurement requirements. Harvard receives substantial research funding from Federal agencies and is obligated to maintain a federally approved purchasing system.