What else requires competitive bids besides printing jobs?
Even though higher education is now almost entirely exempt from state purchasing rules, The Texas Legislature requires that we support the state’s efforts to gainfully employ persons with disabilities. We must give first consideration to goods and services provided by persons with disabilities. Products and services offered by the Texas Industries for the Blind and Handicapped (TIBH) are listed on the TIBH Online Catalog. TIBH offers these products and services through State of Texas contracts. We must check their pricing and availability. However if these goods do not meet your best value criteria, that failure is justification to buy the products from the commercial marketplace. For purchases over $5,000, your department purchasing representative can take telephone quotes or receive fax quotes on orders up to $25,000. We call this “informal bidding.” “Formal bidding” is where purchasing handles the bidding and vendors must send in sealed envelopes containing their offers by a certain
