To: Management Council Members, and VPs of Finance
From: Shared Services Center
Area: Procurement
Reason: Monthly Confirming Order Percentage Report
Date: February 5, 2024
Dear Colleges:
As you know from our discussion in January’s Management Council Meeting, we are beginning a focused journey towards Procurement Level II delegated authority. While we anticipate beginning some focused communications for Procurement Level II in the coming weeks, we would like to provide you with a baseline report of our confirming orders.
A confirming order is defined as a purchase order that is created to financially recognize a purchase that has already taken place by some other means (a phoned in order, a verbal agreement, a web order, etc.).
As such, confirming orders present some risk related to financial liability and procurement non-compliance. Based on these concerns, the Department of General Services (DGS) and the Department of Purchasing and Supply (DPS) discourage the routine use of confirming orders.
We will be working this year to move towards a 5% or less use of confirming orders (reserving use primarily for emergency purchases and appropriate exceptions only). Please refer to the attached report to see your College’s current confirming order usage. We would like this report to be the beginning of an exciting new collaboration on improvement with the common goal of achieving Procurement Level II delegated authority for the benefit of all!
Please feel free to share this report with others at your College who will contribute to us reaching our mutual goal.
If you have any questions, you may contact the SSC Customer Engagement Team at 877-340-557 or help@ssc.vccs.edu.
