qathet Regional District’s board of directors will consider a delegation of purchasing authority bylaw that will raise the amount of money that staff is able to spend.
At the October 4 finance committee meeting, Electoral Area E director and finance committee chair Andrew Fall said he had some concerns about the amounts that were being proposed. He asked manager of financial services Linda Greenan to outline the proposed changes.
Greenan said the former delegation of purchasing authority bylaw didn’t separate the bylaw from the policy, and there were shortcomings with the bylaw.
“This is meant to improve that,” said Greenan.
“One of the big problems we were having was the low threshold that managers had [to spend],” said Greenan. “They would put out a request for proposals and there were quite low dollar values. Even though the dollar values are increased in the proposed bylaw, staff are still required to do their best to get value for money and to ensure we are adhering to the strategic plan. and that we are looking at social procurement incentives.”
Greenan said the increase in purchasing authority means that the process will be streamlined so that the board is not inundated with having to approve small purchases.
“If there is a particular procurement that the board sees as a large interest to the public, or something that they think is going to be controversial, the board can specify, even if it is below the limit, that they want it to go through a process, or have staff come to the board for approval before the reward is given,” said Greenan.
Fall said the bylaw and the policy are a lot more clear to him in the new bylaw.
He said the one item that stands out is expenditures up to $500,000 that the chief administrative officer and one officer or manager can approve.
“I assume that would be for an item the board has approved in the financial plan,” said Fall. “If the board wanted to have further oversight, they could make a request.”
Greenan said if the board had approved a procurement for $500,000, such as a renovation to an existing building, right now, the chief administrative officer can only approve up to $75,000. She said such a project would still have to go through the tendering process. She said right now, if a contract hits $75,000, it has to come to the board, which sometimes means the procurement has to wait another month. She added that if the procurement is not in the financial plan, staff can’t move forward, and it would have to go back to the regional board for consideration.
Electoral Area D director Sandy McCormick said that the current $75,000 for the chief administrative office is low, but she wondered why $500,000 was chosen, as opposed to $300,000.
Greenan said she looked at the thresholds of other regional districts and local governments and $500,000 seemed to be the right amount, comparatively. She said that a competitive process for contracts would have to be initiated and that it couldn’t be a sole-source contract.
Fall said what would be useful is to see how many projects fit into the higher budget category and have them reported on to the regional board. He asked Greenan how difficult the reporting would be. Greenan said an annual report could be generated.
The committee recommended the regional board repeal the old delegation of purchasing authority bylaw and give first reading through adoption of the new one. There was also recommendation the new procurement policy be adopted.
A motion was raised to provide an annual report to the board on spending above $75,000. McCormick asked if the reporting could be done quarterly. Greenan said it could be done but it would be a little bit of work because there is a manual, not an electronic, purchase order system. The committee voted to recommend the board receive an annual report of expenditures of staff expenditures of more than $75,000.
The committee also voted to recommend to the board to adopt a proposed asset disposal policy.
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