Back in the Saddle

After having surgery and being out of the office for two weeks, getting back into the swing of things.  Boy did a LOT happen in just two short weeks.  While I am still in “recovery” mode, work must go on… the trick is not to overdo it!

The contract mentioned in an earlier post that was having “politic” problems was cancelled.

There were issues with an end user not following procurement policy and now I have to figure out how to get that department under control without stepping on too many toes or appearing to be a bully or condescending.

Reviewing and negotiating terms with a vendor who does not understand that a contract was established and their new T’s and C’s are in conflict with what was previously negotiated.

In general just catching up … oh and don’t forget to study for the CPPO!!!

What a warm welcome it is!

Preparing for leaves of absence

When you have a small shop, like I do, any leave of absence is a challenge.  We all have to take vacations right?  This time that I will be out is not due to a vacation but for medical reasons so that adds an extra level of stress.  So how do you prepare?

Here is what we’ve done:

1. Communicate to your end users and coworkers that you will be out and how long you will be gone.
2. Forecast out all procurements that can be put off until your return.
3. Prepare any documents in advance that might be needed in your absence such as:
   1. Notices of Award (leaving the awardee, date and other changeable information highlighted and blank)
   2. Acceptance Agreements
   3. Memos to Senior staff/Boards
   4. Sign in sheets for bid opening ect.
4. Prepare step by step instructions for anything your staff is unsure of or worried about forgetting.
5. Leave detailed notes on anything that you normally do for others.

Find support channels for staff to use while  you are out…. and last resort let them know when they can contact  you.

Hopefully I will be able to post again soon.  I am out of the office starting the 17th for up to 6 weeks… talk to you again when I can!

 

P-cards part 2

So yesterday we ran into the issue that one of our cards at a school was being declined due to lack of funds.  Two things occurred here; first the card number we had on file did not match the one in the online system where we can monitor the cards, the second was that we show the card to have more than enough $$ left to process the transaction (about $650).   My lovely and wonderful purchasing specialist jumped on the phone with our card processor to find out what was going on.

The story continues that the card processor had replaced the original card because they thought their might be fraud on the previous card.  (No they had not informed us of this.)  Also when they replaced the card they reduced the credit limit on the card by 80% also without notifying us.   After almost 3 hours on the phone with both the card processor and our state account manager we found out that it wasn’t our card that had fraud but that the processor in general had fraud at a business where this card had been used before and replaced the card on their own.  The reduction of the credit limit was due to some other issues going one with a change in who reconciles the card here at our school district.   Needless to say it took all this time to resolve the issue and get things in working order again.  Oh and by the way, the replacement card whose number we could see on our processing screens was delivered to our office as the purchasing specialist was on the phone with our processor.

In the meantime I had a discussion with my new Executive Director of Finance about what was happening and it sparked a discussion on ensuring staff were not committing fraud and the existence of the P-card program in general.  As a p-card program administrator I recognize the need for this ability and also the added administrative work added due to this program, however from a financial management point I can see the flip side of the argument in trying to reduce fraud.  The use of this program is a trade off and its future is uncertain but I am willing to advocate for the end users and our entity.

Your thoughts?

Manic Mondays

Yes I am channeling the Bangles and showing my age.  As is a typical Monday today’s best laid plans went awry.  Our new ERP system went live to our end users, the Architect started sending emails about multiple projects, a department director is changing her staffing up… its always something.  How do we keep our heads?

One Step at a time.  Granted I now have not one but 3 post-its with notes and to do’s but the work is still getting done.   I printed this off from a Facebook posting to help me keep up with it all … How much of this works for you?

15-surprising-things-successful-people-do-differently

I struggle with #3 as I make lists for everything!!  Oh and #7 would never happen in the procurement world because then your phone would blow up!!! And #13 REALY? we work in bureaucracy can we every only touch things once?

Well enough for this Manic Monday hopefully tomorrow will be like Tuesday Afternoon… (yeah that would be Moody Blues!!)

 

Politics and Procurement

I have always liked to say “There is no place for politics in procurement.” but realistically we all know that this is just not true.

Thankfully in most of my procurements, politics has had little to no influence, but every now and then you have a procurement that you just cannot keep the politics out of it.

So how do you mitigate the politics and ensure that there is no conflict of interest? You stick to your procurement policies and follow your procurement code making sure all of your “i’s” are dotted and “t”s” crossed.

As we completed a procurement that had political influence I was asked to assist the end user in preparing a memo that summarized the evidence that we followed policy and were still ensuring that the District had flexibility going forward.  The generated memo stated the procurement facts, detailed whom and what was evaluated, showed evidence of negotiations, sited the paragraphs of the subsequent contract that allowed for changes or termination, and showed how the contract would be monitored going forward.

Making sure you have a good grasp of your procurement policies and procedures, working closely with your end users and above all deep breaths will get you through the added work, stress and attention when politics become involved in procurement.

Happy Friday!  Stay Warm!

W-9’s and adding vendors to your systems

This was a recent posting in the Nsite community and funnily enough we have had the same issue arise here in our office.

Who makes the determination on what addresses or information gets entered into your financial system?  How do you know the information you have received is accurate?  What about multiple locations for the same Tax ID (EIN) number?

When you are in a large jurisdiction where procurement and finance are separate departments this is a constant battle on who “owns” the vendor file.  When you are in small jurisdictions it is a collaborative effort to make sure both sides of the house (procurement vs accounts payable) have all the information needed to do their job.

As we just implemented a new ERP system there is a considerable amount of vendor clean up coming out of the old system and some retraining on thought processes for vendors.

As an example our old system allowed for us to have a tax ID number in it multiple times mainly due to the fact that there was only space for a corporate address and a remit to address.  In our new system we can add an unlimited number of addresses associated with a single tax ID.

Because of this we have tried to create a standard:

The first address listed is the corporate address as listed on the W-9, the second address is the remit to address, all other addresses are added as needed such as PO address, contract administration address, etc.

Now the conundrum of ensuring the information you have is accurate.  As stated in the previous Nsite posting you can check against the IRS, however that is typically only the corporate address and not all the others.   Since we can scan and attach the documents to our vendor file we do so and have to rely that the vendor is providing us with the most up to date information.

P-Cards (Procurement Cards)

There is so much to write about this topic, however to keep it simple, this will probably be a multi-post blog topic.  It is inspired as we work on re-writing our p-card manual to work with our new ERP system that went live yesterday.  Enjoy…

As budgets were cut, personnel lost, the need to be able to make quick, timely purchases increased, government needed to find a way to delegate purchasing of small purchases to their end users.  Thus created the need for government to begin using credit cards, AKA p-cards.  The growth of p-card programs has been both a boon and a headache for many procurement professionals.

So let’s examine a few of the pros and cons of these programs:

Pros:

• Greater flexibility and speed in purchases made under small purchase thresholds,
• Reduction in the number of purchase orders
• Can be used as part of e-procurement systems

Cons:

• Controlling fraud
• Establishing solid policies that follow procurement rules/laws but still allow for flexibility
• Increases financial tracking and reconciliation workload

Each jurisdictions has its own limits for what constitutes a “small purchase” and these limits need to be considered prior to setting up a p-card program. Depending on the size of your organization, managing a p-card program can be a full time job, so staffing should be part of your consideration. Determining what, if any, repercussions can be put into place for misuse of the p-card should be discussed with Human Resources to ensure compliance with state and federal employment laws. Establish audit procedures to maintain controls to ensure transactions are in compliance with policy.

Finding a provider:

This can be one of the most challenging as there are many companies out there that would love to have large accounts such as those established by public entities.  Creating a solicitation and contract that gets the best value for the services received is catamount.

 

 

Did you know?

Did you know that as a procurement professional no two days are the same, no two contracts are the same, and absolutely no two procurements or jurisdictions are the same?

So if that is the standard, how do you go about creating standards or best practices on how to do your job?

Answer: Trial and error, legal requirements, and most importantly peer review, acceptance, collaboration and agreement.

The NIGP best practices documents are a GREAT example of these ideas in action.  Others like you and me work together to build the framework and then flesh out best practices for others in our profession to utilize in their daily work.  The committees who create these come from a variety of types of jurisdictions and across the country.  If you are interested in being a part of one of these groups reach out!

 

http://www.nigp.org

 

Welcome to ProcurementRulz

Hello fellow procurement professionals!

I had this idea about a year or so ago and am finally now getting this “project” going.  This blog is designed to offer advice, give insight, and hopefully inspire others to become a procurement professional or grow their procurement career.

So now a little about me…..

My name is Kristy Varda and I live in Stephens City, Virginia.  I have been a procurement professional for 5 years but what a 5 years it has been!  My education, as typical, is not in business, government, or procurement.  I have a B.S. in Animal Science, a M.S. in Biotechnology Studies and an M.B.A.  Did I mention that I was a military spouse for almost ten years?  So how in the world did I end up in procurement?  Well… while working on my M.B.A. (2008-2009) I went through the first of not one, but three, layoffs.  One of those jobs, however, introduced me to the Wonderful world of Procurement!  It was a brief stint at the Department of Interior’s Acquisition Services, National Business Center.  Many don’t know that this is a fee for service agency within the Federal Government that does nothing but procurement and contract management on behalf of other federal agencies.  It was here that I got a brief look at the procurement and thought “this is something I could do!!”.

So my career actually started at a not so small county government in Virginia, Fairfax County.  There I cut my teeth on procurement and really found a job I could enjoy and do well.   The types of procurements I was able to be a part of further inspired me to grow as a professional and seek new challenges.  One of these new challenges was to change jobs and in a BIG way.  In 2015, I became the lead procurement professional for a school district in the far north western portion of Virginia.

So this is how my story begins…. now for how to grow and help others as well… see you next time!