According to Executive law 15-A, a policy mandated by New York State and SUNY, any purchase over $25,000 must go through a special process to determine whether or not Certified Minority and/or Women owned Businesses Enterprises (CMWBE's) can participate in the procurement or fully supply the goods or services. We are required to attain a CMWBE utilization goal of purchasing 30% of all of our goods and services from CMWBE's. Due to the nature of this process, please plan your purchases accordingly as anything over the $25,000 threshold will have a longer turnaround time due to additional SUNY and Empire State Development (ESD) approvals.
Any procurements over $25,000 should be discussed with the Purchasing Office before vendor selection. This includes NYS OGS Contracts.
Purchasing retains the right to change/substitute a vendor/contractor on any and all departmental requisitions whereby a MWBE is found capable of supplying such commodities and/or services based upon identified form, function and utility at a predetermined reasonable price.
The University seeks to: increase certified minority/woman business participation by encouraging the use of current, new and diversified MWBE's into our marketplace; further develop procedures to be used by the University in identifying commodities, contractual services and other related services that could be provided by the certified minority/woman business community; and adopt a tracking process by which minority business enterprises are not rejected as unqualified without sound rational reasons based upon a thorough investigative process.
Contact
For questions regarding MWBE procurements, contact Meghan Dold, or Matthew Schofield
Availability
Goal Development Process
Purchasing has the discretionary authority to award a procurement up to $200,000 for MWBE as identified by the New York State Department of Economic Development in SUNY Procedure Numbers 7556 and 7557. As stated in Item 7553 (and consistent with NYS State Finance Law Section 163), where commodities or services are available from New York State certified M/WBEs, purchases may be made by the University in amounts not exceeding $200,000 without competitive bidding. However, the discretionary threshold to $200,000 for procurements from small, minority- and women-owned business does NOT apply to construction & construction-related services. The campuses are required to document in the procurement record support for both the reasonableness of the price and the selection of the vendor. Advertising requirements under NYS Economic Development Law still apply.
If goals must be assigned to the project and/or commodity and/or service, the Purchasing Office will do so. The opportunity to bid on the project will be presented with the goals that the contractor must put in a "good faith effort" to meet.
After bids are received on a particular procurement, and a responsible bidder is determined, the bidder/contractor is required to submit an MWBE utilization plan with their bid. The utilization plan is then forwarded to the Purchasing Office. Approval may take up to thirty (30) days or longer if the utilization program as submitted is considered inadequate. After approval a purchase order can be issued or contract signed. If the utilization plan is unapproved and no resolution can be agreed upon, we move to the next qualified vendor/contractor to restart this portion of the process.
