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General Procurement Requirements

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Plan in advance: When requisitioning any item that involves any incoming shipment to DHSU (any funding source), be sure you are familiar with Downstate's incoming shipment requirements. Plan the purchase so that your department is able to accept a shipment upon its arrival to DHSU, including having the space to receive the shipment upon its arrival. Shipments are NOT to be left on the Central Receiving loading dock overnight, or stored in any location that present a fire code violation. More detail at Central Receiving Incoming Shipment Requirements.

Procurement $ Thresholds

Estimated Cost: •$0.00+ (Zero Dollars and over):

Estimated Cost: $0.01- $14,999.99 (placed by Individual end user dept)

  • justification for Vendor Selection.
  • Three verbal or written quotations.
  • Statement of reasonableness of price required
  • Estimated order time: placed by individual department P-Card holders

Estimated Cost: $15,000.00 - $49,999.99

Estimated Cost: $50,000.00 +

  • Advertisement in NYS Contract Reporter. Adds about 15 business days to the process; Procurement advertises all routine products quarterly.
  • For Construction Related procurements, also advertise in Albany Times & Brooklyn Minority (Competitive Bidding)
  • Any Sole/ Single Source Procurements Require NYS AG and OSC pre-approval.
  • Estimate order time: depending on complexity of procurement.

Estimated Cost: $75,000+

  • For contractual service procurements only, requires NYS Attornery General & OSC pre-approval.Time frame: Adds Up to 90 days.

Estimated Cost: $100,000.00 +

Reasonableness of Price

Price justification can include, but is not limited to:

  • The Vendor's published price list;
  • Prior invoices from this vendor to other consumers;
  • Invoices or cost sheet from prior state contracts;
  • Comparisons to other vendors' prices for similar products/ services;
  • Comparison to similar purchases by other campuses;
  • Historical cost or price comparison.

Additional Approvals Needed on your requisition

Regardless of funding sources, some types of procurement, commodities or services require the approval of additional DHSU departments such as:

  • All Animal Purchases - Division of Comparative Medicine (formerly Department of Laboratory Animal Resources/ DLAR). Ext 4198.
  • All Computer Hardware and Software: Information Services. Ext 4357 (HELP). All Apple products must be purchased through Insight under OSC contract.
  • All Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Equipment or Requiring Connection to Building Utility Systems (plumbing, electrical, steam), or related to Construction, Design, Electrical, Equipment over 800 lbs, or requiring new utilities or A/C impact, or larger than 35”X82” (elevator and/or door dimensions):Facilities Management & Development (FM&D). Ext 2345.
  • All IFR (Income Fund Reimburseable) Accounts, regardless of dollar amount: Budget Office - IFR unit. Ext 1116
  • All Patient Care Equipment: Biomedical/ Clinical Engineering (former name: Scientific and Medical Instrumentation Center/ SMIC). Ext 3192. Upon arrival, Equipment is delivered to SMIC for review and clearance for use before the equipment is placed into use
  • All Telecommunications Devices (connected to DHSU telephone system) and Cell Phones: Telecommunications. Ext 2433.

Sole Source, Single Source, and Emergency Orders

  • Where competition would otherwise be required, but is not feasible due to the sole source, single source or emergency nature of a commodity or service, the campus must be able to justify and document the selection of the vendor and establish the reasonableness of the price. In accordance with the State Finance Law, exceptions to the general requirement for competitive selection shall only be made under unusual circumstances. The campus must maintain in its Procurement Record written justification supporting the sole source, single source or emergency determination. An example of substantiating single source procurement (limited number of suppliers) might be written documentation detailing prior substantial experience of the contractor in provision of the products or services customized to the SUNY environment or a certain service that only one contractor provides in addition to the service or technology being procured. An example of substantiating sole source procurement (only one supplier) would be written documentation detailing the unique nature of the requirement, how it was determined only one vendor could meet the need, and how it was determined the cost is reasonable. One method available to document the sole source status is to advertise in the Contract Reporter and only receive one response.
  • EMERGENCY ORDERS: An emergency is defined as an urgent and unexpected event where health and public safety or the conservation of public resources is at risk. A failure to properly and timely plan in advance for a procurement, which then results in a situation in which normal procurement practices cannot be followed, will not constitute an emergency. In the event of an emergency, the relevant DHSU/ LICH department must immediately alert the Procurement department of the nature of the situation followed by a complete written explanation of the emergent situation. If the emergency occurs on off hours, 5pm – 8am, or on the week-end, Saturday or Sunday, the notification to the Procurement department should be the next business day.
  • Written Justification with Requisition: Identify the Emergency. Document the time, date, place, location and what occurred. If applicable, indicate whether the emergency was caused by an insured/ non-insured outside entity. Have a senior campus officer approve/ sign the written Emergency Justification and exemption from NYSCR (Contract Reporter Advertising) if applicable depending on cost.

OGS P-Contracts

  • The Office of General Services (Albany) awards Statewide term contracts for many commodities at reasonable prices. Departments should take advantage of these whenever possible. For most items, an unlimited dollar amount can be purchased without the need for further competition. State contracts are available to view on the Internet at http://www.ogs.state.ny.us/purchase/search/default.asp

Lobbying Law State Finance Law (SFL 139 J&K)

  • Directs all state agencies to document and control the contact between potential bidders and the staff responsible for the procurement process. Once a bid has entered the procurement process, the DHSU procurement agent will determine who the appropriate contract individuals at DHSU will be and train those persons on how to document all discussions (in person, phone, email, mail) with potential bidders. More info available at: https://ogs.ny.gov/acpl/

Cleaning Products- Executive Order 134

  • Executive Order #134 directs all state agencies to procure and use cleaning products having properties that minimize potential impacts to human health and the environment consistent with the maintenance of the effectiveness of these products for the protection of public health and safety. The Procurement Office is working to identify "green" cleaning products for use on campus. At this time, there are several products that are available from OGS Contracts, please visit: www.ogs.state.ny.us/purchase. For information about green cleaning products available from the New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID), please visit: http://www.nysid.org. For information about green cleaning products available from the Industries for the Blind of New York State, Inc. (IBNYS) please visit: https://ibnys.org/. For information about green cleaning products available from the Division of Industries (Corcraft) please visit: http://www.corcraft.org.

Archive Services: Record Retention, Storage, Retrieval & Destruction:

Iron Mountain Archive Services - Effective 7/1/18, DHSU Contracts Office will be coordinating use of these services and charging your account for services directly. Downstate's offsite archive document storage and retrieval service contractor that includes document shredding of stored files upon their expiration.

  • For Older hard copy records, SUNY DHSU has an outside vendor service for all archive record storage and retrieval. Departments are highly encouraged to utilize this service where feasible so that you department space can be more effectively used for your departmental mission.. The current vendor is "Iron Mountain". Effective 7/1/18, all services are coordinated and billed by the DHSU Contract Office.

    QUESTIONS? Contact the DHSU Contract Office eMail or call Ext 1134 (718-270-1134).

    FIRST TIME USERS: Need to establish a new Iron Mountain account by completing the Archive Service Account Set Up form and a DHSU Purchase Requisition Form for your estimated annual expenses; send both to Contracts Office at MailStop 113.

    EACH NEW FISCAL YEAR, you must complete a new Purchase Requisition Form at the start of each new FY for your estimated annual expenses and submit to DHSU Contracts.

    DON'T PAY TO STORE UNNECESSARY RECORDS! When you place records in storage, your department will continue to pay for the monthly storage, so it is important that you at least annually review the list of records that your department has in storage and that you destroy records that are no longer required to be retained. When new files are sent for archiving, you will be required establish the destruction date for the files. The SUNY Archive guidelines for record retention can be found online.

    Is Onsite Electronic Document Imaging Right For Your Department? All departments are urged to the extent possible to begin scanning documents and store electronic documents, so that over time, storage of paper files becomes limited to only those required by law. For information regarding how to set up and use Downstate's online electronic document imaging service, contact the DHSU Contracts Office (Maureen Crystal, Contracts Director Ext 1976 (718-270-1976).

  • Shredding. DHSU COntracts & Procurment has engaged shredding services through NYSID (Contact  DanBanh <DBanh@nysid.org> ). NYSID coordinates with the vendor (Proshred Security ) for offices that have ongoing frequent shredding needs of confidential documents. They place a large pail in the office and pick-up filled containers on a regular basis.  

Bottled Water:

Downstate Bottled Water services have been cancelled. Questions- contact the Contracts department- Send eMail

Office Supplies- Desktop Delivery Program

WB Mason website login: https://www.wbmason.com/login2.aspx 

This SUNY contract program through WB Mason has office supplies at NYS discounted rates for cost effectiveness and efficiency. This program provides desktop delivery directly to your office for most items on the next business day. The WB Mason website has been populated with Downstate's core items based off the SUNY Contract covering the majority of product needs. 

We will use the abbreviation “AU” to define Accounting Unit for the hospital and Account for campus.  These are department cost centers that have budgets.

If you are not registered or trained, please follow the steps below:

Training:  Videos of several training session were recorded; If you missed the training session, No Problem! There are three training videos:

1) Requisitioners (authorized staff that can order supplies funded by your AU(s); Click here to watch the requisitioner training recording

2) Campus Approvers (AU owners) – those that approve orders and manage budgets for campus (non-hospital) AUs; Click here to watch the campus approver training recording

3) Hospital Approvers (AU Owners) – those that approve orders and manage budgets for hospital AUs. Click here to watch the hospital and shared services approver training recording

Registering: To set up your WB Mason website account and access:

  • Requisitioners: Contact your Accounting Unit (AU) owner which is typically your Department Administrator to request access. Your AU Owner will then send an eMail to bella.santana@wbmason.com with your respective authorized AU(s) to grant you access to the WB Mason website. Once that is completed, you will receive an invitation from WB Mason with your login credentials. Please login and complete your WBMason profile, including your internal destination delivery location(s) building and room number.
  • Accounting Unit (AU) Owners; typically, the Department Administrator: Initial Downstate AU Owners have already been established with their respective AUs and you should have already received your eMail invitation to register on the WB Mason website. 

New or additional AU Owners must contact their respective Finance/Budget Office to gain WB Mason website access contact:

That respective Budget Office will eMail the designated WB Mason Representative with your applicable authorized AU(s). Once received and programmed, WB Mason with then send you an eMail invitation to register on the WB Mason website to approve office supplies orders for the applicable AUs. 

Then login to place your order online and to approve any orders requested by your designated staff.

To establish additional Requisitioners, follow the instructions in the section above titled “Requisitioners”.

Receipts: Your WBMason account is used to validate your receipts and monitor your budget. Please review your receipts at least monthly and if there are any discrepancies see “Inquiries” below.

Budget status:  Please see the WB Mason site for information on your AU budget dollars available and amount spent.  This budget status information is available when you log in to the WB Mason website under: “My Account & Payments” then select the tile called “Budgets”.  If you have any questions please see “Inquiries” below.  All State-funded accounts will be invoiced by WB Mason on a monthly basis and paid by State Accounts Payable, then journal entries will post the charges to your applicable State funded Accounting Unit(s) /AUs.

Downstate Affiliated Entity Purchases (non-State Funds): Any interested campus affiliates (Research Foundation, FSA, HSCB Foundation Inc, University Physicians of Brooklyn Inc, Children's Center of SUNY Brooklyn Inc, etc.) can use this program to receive the same NYS discounted rates and direct desktop delivery. Contact WBMason Customer Service (listed below) to set up your WBMason account with your affiliate's applicable billing/payment details.

Inquiries: Contact our WBMason Dedicated Support team for additional information or questions: 

Bella Santana, SUNY Downstate Customer Service Representative; bella.santana@wbmason.com; 508-436-1613

Tori Blackman, SUNY Downstate Account Manager; tori.blackman@wbmason.com

Furniture Purchases

  • First check availability of product through Corcraft (a State Preferred Source). DHSU is required to use Corcraft for all furniture purposes. The Corcraft Sales Representative for DHSU is: Michael Loeffler; phone: (347) 219-1470; eMail: mike.loeffler@docs.state.ny.us
  • Significant furniture procurements in excess of DHSU capitalization threshold will be captured for inclusion in Downstate's Property Control System
  • Large Equipment or Furniture Shipments: The recipient department initiating a purchase (regardless of funding source) is responsible for making any/ all needed advance logistic arrangements, including if your shipment involves any special circumstances such as delivery being predicated on specific phase/ date of a renovation project, delivery to an alternate temporary staging location for assembly logistics, etc.
  • Does your department have adequate space to receive the new equipment. Will the new equipment fit through all the doorways to accommodate delivery. Where needed, plan any needed vendor inside delivery, installation or set up as part of the procurement, and be certain to notify Central Receiving of an incoming shipment made directly to your department, since a Central Receiving receipt is needed for State payments.
  • The recipient department is expected to make every effort to advance plan and coordinate the logistics of shipment arrival that maximizes efficient DHSU labor and space - including avoiding of temporary storage wherever possible. Please be certain to include clear instruction in the 'comments' section of your requisition and discuss any needed logistics with the assigned Procurement Agent and Central Receiving.

DownstateHSU as Payee (paying another DHSU State Account)

OSC no longer permits DHSU to cut checks payable to our own campus State Accounts. Instead, such transactions are to be processed as Journal Transfers. As a result:

  • Requisitions received by Procurement that identify the suggested supplier (ie: the Payee) as another SUNY DHSU State or Hospital Account, a DHSU department, OR a DHSU IFR Account, and that show "Charge To" information is a DHSU State or Hospital Account, will be forwarded and processed as journal transfer vouchers. The 8-digit Account Codes and Object Code should be included for both sides of the transactions ("account from" and "account to"). Send to Financial Management at Mail Stop 130; e-Mail link.
  • Requisitions received by Procurement that identify the suggested supplier (ie: the Payee) as a DHSU IFR Account, with "Charge To" as another IFR Account, will be forwarded to the IFR Office for processing as a Revenue Adjustment form (FM909). The 8-digit IFR Account Codes and Object Code should be included for both sides of the transactions ("account from" and "account to"). Send to: IFR Office at Mail Stop 1217; eMail link

Equipment Purchases

Equipment purchases require advance planning. Be sure to plan::

  • Check to see what vendors (if any) have a NYS OGS contract, since that can often greatly expedite your procurement.
  • Check what additional approvals may be required on the requisition, depending on the type of equipment being purchased.
  • Start the Surplus Form process for any equipment that must be removed in order to make space available to receive the new equipment. Where ever possible, first seek a trade in from the vendor providing the new purchase.
  • When the new equipment purchase value is over $5K, the Property Control office will need to affix a DHSU asset tag to it after its delivery. If the item will be located in a different location from the location specified on your requisition Final internal delivery section, then include a line on your requisition for the actual location (building and room#) of the asset  where it will physically be in use.
  • Does your department have adequate space to receive the new equipment. Will the new equipment fit through all the doorways to accommodate delivery. Where needed, plan any needed vendor inside delivery, installation or set up as part of the procurement, and be certain to notify Central Receiving of an incoming shipment made directly to your department, since a Central Receiving receipt is needed for State payments. See also: Large Shipments (link)
  • If the equipment will also require a post-warrantee ongoing maintenance/ service agreement, both should be submitted on ONE requisition so that a bid analysis includes these future known expenses. The Purchase of the equipment will be issued on a separate Purchase Order from the PO or contract issued for the maintenance/ service agreement.
  • Equipment Upgrades: Where an upgrade is being made to a DHSU capital asset, an asset on the DHSU Property Control System, and the upgrade will significantly increase the useful life of that asset, or the upgrade meets DHSU capitalization threshold (currently $5,000.), the requisition must include the DHSU asset tag number of the asset being upgraded and reflected on the resulting procurement document, so that the asset's useful life can be extended and the asset's original cost can be increased to include the upgrade cost. Requisitioner must also attach any applicable sole or limited source justification.
  • Large Equipment or Furniture Shipments: The recipient department initiating a purchase (regardless of funding source) is responsible for making any/ all needed advance logistic arrangements, including if your shipment involves any special circumstances such as delivery being predicated on specific phase/ date of a renovation project, delivery to an alternate temporary staging location for assembly logistics, etc. The recipient department is expected to make every effort to advance plan and coordinate the logistics of shipment arrival that maximizes efficient DHSU labor and space - including avoiding of temporary storage wherever possible. Please be certain to include clear instruction in the 'comments' section of your requisition and discuss any needed logistics with the assigned Procurement Agent and Central Receiving.

Trade-Ins

If you have surplus, obsolete, unused equipment, consider trading it in against a new purchase. Many vendors will accept trade-in equipment and offer value for them. This provides a direct benefit to the requesting department; Your department receives the financial benefit and can save your department from any moving costs (if any) associated with its disposal. It also prevents the need to undertake the NYS OGS surplus property process under which all surplus equipment proceeds gets deposited into the State general income fund.

The Purchase Requisition, and its resulting Purchase Order, MUST specify a line items for "Trade-In" with the asset description (Manufacturer Model and Serial#, and the DHSU tag number) as well as trade-in value the vendor has offered. The DHSU Property Control office will retire the traded-in asset at the time of adding the newly purchased asset. This avoids the much longer formal surplus process. However, if you fail to include the specific asset information on the Purchase Requisition (and PO), then you must complete the Surplus Form process.

Equipment Repairs

Repair procurements are processed by the Contracts unit. Where a repair service is needed, which is not covered under a warrantee or post-warrantee equipment service/ maintenance agreement, include on your requisition:

  • A general description of the repair service needed.
  • specify if the repair cost is known or estimated and what factors may change the estimate.
  • The time period that repair will take place.
  • Specify whether the item is being shipped for external repair or repair services being done on DHSU premises. If off site, give shipping details.
  • Attach any suggested vendor’s repair quotation.
  • Attach any applicable sole or limited source justification.
  • Where a repair is being made to a DHSU capital asset, an asset on the DHSU Property Control System, and the repair will significantly increase the useful life of that asset or the repair cost meets DHSU capitalization threshold (currently $5,000.), the requisition must include the DHSU asset tag number of the asset being repaired, and reflected on the resulting procurement document, so that the asset's useful life can be extended and the asset's original cost can be increased to include the repair cost.

You will need to send Accounts Payable your payment authorization after repair is complete.

Equipment Service & Maintenance

Recurring post-warrantee annual maintenance and service agreements are best handled when new equipment is being procured (part of the procurement bid analysis). These procurements are processed by the Contracts unit.Your requisition for service agreements should always include:

  • A general description- so that the assigned Purchase Agent understands the service being requested. An assigned P Agent may not be aware of and therefore relies on the information you provide on your req.
  • Complete listing of all equipment covered including, manufacturer, model, serial and DHSU asset tag numbers and location.
  • Specify whether the agreement covered scheduled preventive maintenance, parts, time and materials,– including premium time (weekends where needed / applicable), and or parts.
  • Specify the period covered; start date/ end date. If it is an extension of a previous agreement, include in the req ‘comments’ section the prior PO or contract# to greatly improve your req's processing time.
  • Specify the payment terms (annual pre-payment vs. monthly, quarterly payments.
  • Attach your recommended vendor's quotation documents.
  • Attach any limited source/ sole source justification cover letter.

Catering

On campus catering sources are available to all Downstate departments through two primary sources: Sodexo or Cafe101.

Catering paid by State Funds requires that you submit a requisition to Contracts & Procurement Management department (MailStop# 63) with a detailed description of the catering event and the benefit to the State/ DHSU Medical Center with its estimated dollar amount.

Cafe 101 (located in Student Center) will accept your catering order only on the established Catering Order Form with a NYS Purchase Order number that has been issued by the DHSU State Procurement Office in advance of the event.

The Catering Vendor must send the invoice directly to A/P (MailStop# 54) referencing the approved DHSU Purchase Order #. In addition, the requisitioner (event coordinator) must provide the following additional information following the event to A/P at MSC 54; Fax 3375:

  • List of Attendees.
  • A copy of the event announcement, flyer, invitation or brochure.
  • Authorization to Pay. This can be done by the dept event coordinator signing a copy of the Catering Vendor's invoice "OK to Pay" or other such memorandum acknowledging the catering services were preformed satisfactorily.
    • Note: Cafe 101 uses an approved Catering Order Form that includes the acceptance signature of the dept event coordinator at the catered event. Cafe 101 then submits this form and invoice directly to Accounts Payable.
    • Sodexo has a similar catering order form process. 

Printing

The Downstate Depot Quick Copy Center utilizes external printer(s) and can refer you for quotations to begin your procurement process. Depending on the individual print job cost estimate, very high volume and complicated print jobs may need to be submitted and processed through the standard Purchase Requisition Process to the State Purchasing Office. 

DHSU Business Cards and Stationery (letterhead, envelopes) are printed using a statewide printing contract; See Dupli-Online Order Process(link)

Envelopes: Standard (generic) DHSU envelopes pre-printed with the main DHSU address, and department specific #10 envelopes and window envelopes ar available through the Dupli-Online Order Process(link) . Plain white (unprinted)#10 and window envelopes are available for purchase through the Office Supplies- Desktop Delivery Program (link)