Chapter 6 - Contracts and Leases

Chapter 6 – Contracts and Leases

6.1 Contracts

A contract is a written agreement for the purchase or disposal of supplies, services, insurance, equipment or construction. To be effective, a contract must include an offer and acceptance by competent parties to furnish goods and/or services for an agreed monetary consideration.

Contract Types	Procurement Facilitates access to Three Types of Contracts
1. Blanket Agreements. These contracts establish the commitment of a supplier to furnish the purchaser's requirements for items or services on an as-required basis.	1. Enterprise Contracts. Established by Procurement, these contracts are specifically intended either for enterprise-wide purposes or for a specific department. Example: Filtered Water, Office Supplies etc.
2. Term Contracts. These contracts establish a source of supply for goods or services during a specified period of time. Often these have a discount off list price structure but have a firm start and end date.	2. Governmental Contracts and Other GW Contracts. These contracts are entered into by other higher-ed institutions and/or governmental entities. These agreements have a "piggyback" clause acknowledged by the contractor that may be used by other non-profit entities and institutions of higher education such as GW.
3. Requirements Contracts. These are agreements in which the supplier agrees to supply all of the purchaser's normal requirements for an item(s) at a specified price during a specified period. Quantity and delivery dates are unknown at award.	3. Cooperative Purchase Contracts. These are contracts where two or more named entities combine their requirements in order to realize a volume cost advantage. GW may use these contracts even if not specifically named in the original cooperative purchase.

Contracts should be processed in accordance with the Contract Process Guide.

For further questions on contracts and delegation, please contact P2P or the Office of the General Counsel.

6.1.1 Use of Enterprise Contracts

Whenever P2P has executed a contract for a particular commodity or service, departments are encouraged to order from that contract. Contracts established for enterprise-wide use can be found on the P2P website at Enterprise-wide Agreements and through iBuy+.

6.1.2 Execution of Contracts/Agreements

Only individuals that have received specific delegation of authority are authorized to sign contracts that bind GW for the purchase of goods, services, insurance or construction. Please see the Signing of Contracts and Agreements Policy for further information, or visit the Procurement website for the Signature Authority Table.

6.2 Leases

There are two types of leases that GW will enter into for the purchase or use of equipment or services: capital and operational. With a Capital lease, at the end of the term of the lease, GW owns the item. With an operational lease, GW is paying for the use of the item, but as with a leased vehicle, after the term of the lease ends, the item is returned to the leasing company and GW is free to either lease another item or purchase the same item for its fair market value, or pre-determined price as established in the lease.

6.2.1 Lease-Purchase Decision

A lease-purchase decision is based on the results of a cost-benefits analysis of the costs to own, costs to lease, and the advantages and disadvantages of any other relevant factors.[1]

[1] Institute for Supply Management, 2000.

Factors to be Considered: A cost-benefit analysis can take several forms, however consideration of the total costs associated with the life cycle of the equipment, to include asset management and disposal should be made prior to moving forward with a purchase. These factors include:

Length of time the item will be used
Total of rental payments for the period of time to be used
Outright purchase price of item
Transportation and installation price of item
Maintenance and service costs
Funds availability and cost of capital
Obsolescence due to rapid advancement of technology

Additional considerations, depending on the cost, complexity and period of use could include:

Alternate purchase options
Use by others after initial purpose has ended
Continued maintenance by in-house staff if purchased vs. leased

6.3 Contract Management

P2P Department manages the purchase of the commercial goods and services the GW community needs. For most acquisitions, the University's purchasing terms and conditions serve as the governing contract. A GW contract template is available for use when a purchase order will not meet the needs of the school/division.

Contract documents from an outside party/vendor seeking a business relationship with GW must be submitted to P2P via a purchasing requisition with the product quote, statement of work, and supporting documents. For contracts with no cost/payment involved or that are approved to be paid with a P-Card (University credit card), for example, master service agreements and non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)), departments must submit them to P2P via the Gatekeeper Contract Management system.

Gatekeeper is the contract management system the University uses to manage all third-party contracts or legal documents from a vendor related to purchasing commercial goods and services. It is the system of record for review, processing, execution, and timely notification of contract expiration and renewals.

Gatekeeper is available to GW faculty and staff involved in routing contracts/legal documents for review and amendment for their department.

6.3.1 P2P Contracts Review Process

P2P Contracts Management Team reviews and handles all third-party agreements routed through P2P on purchasing requisitions or via Gatekeeper with GW expert reviewer offices such as OGC and Risk Management Office, as well as the facilitation of all communications and feedback between the vendor and the requesting department. Once a contract is reviewed and approved by the expert reviewers, the assigned P2P buyer documents the reviewers' approvals, signs for the University, obtains the contractor's signature, and attaches the fully executed contract copy to the purchase order's header in EAS, uploads it into Gatekeeper, and releases the purchase order. The assigned buyer then emails the fully executed contract and a copy of the purchase order to the vendor and the requisitioner (GW requesting department) or just the fully executed contract to the vendor and end-user via Gatekeeper if payment is to be made by P-Card.

Requesting department is responsible for monitoring the contractor's performance and notifying P2P of any performance issues. In addition, requesting department is responsible for informing P2P of any need for contract modification, renewal, or termination by submitting a requisition in EAS with the request.