A Sole Source procurement is a purchase without competition and is authorized under limited conditions, subject to written justification documenting the conditions that prevented the use of a competitive process.
The person in the department requesting the sole source must fill out and sign a Single/Sole Source Justification form that addresses the uniqueness of the vendor’s qualifications, experience or commodity and the attempts made to find other sources or basis for the sole source.
FORMS | Single/Sole Source Justification form
Price cannot be a factor in the determination of a sole source. The sole source justification and a budgetary quotation are to be attached to the requisition in the Finance system.
The final determination to use a sole source rests with Procurement.
Procurement will review the justification, budgetary quotation and confirm the validity of the sole source. Examples of valid sole sources include proprietary technology, sole authorized distributor for a manufacturer and unique qualifications of a supplier to fulfill needs. When validation is complete, a request for quotation may be issued at Procurement’s discretion. This is done to formally obtain pricing, terms and conditions. Procurement will negotiate any unresolved terms and conditions prior to completion of a sole source purchase.
Sole source procurements >$200,000 require additional P&BS review and higher level approvals.
The time to complete the Sole Source process depends on the complexity and value of the Procurement, and required time to negotiate the final purchase. Procurement of single/sole source items/services exceeding $200,000 typically takes a minimum of 2-3 months to process, starting from the time a complete package including an approved purchase requisition and single/sole source justification documentation is received by Procurement.
