UT Dallas Contract Management and Coordination

Contracts Oversight

Responsibility for non-research contracts at UT Dallas is shared between Procurement Management (PM) and the Office of Contracts Administration (OCA). Research-related contracts are handled by the Office of Research. This document describes the coordination between Procurement Management and the Office of Contracts Administration related to business contracts.

  • Together PM and OCA review, negotiate, process and track university contracts.
  • PM and OCA report to the Vice President for Budget and Finance.
  • iContractsand eProcurement are the primary software tools used as the internal repositories for storing and tracking contracts. Shared between PM and OCA, iContracts is a feature-rich database used to store high risk procurement contracts as well as all contracts handled by OCA. eProcurement is used by PM as the repository for allpurchase orders including all documentation related to the procurement process.
  • OCA and PM share access to iContracts and eProcurement, and staffs communicate closely to process, store and track contracts and make them available as required.
  • All PM and OCA contracts are stored in either iContracts or eProcurement.
  • Copies of purchasing contract documents are also kept on a shared drive. Contract documents in this drive are sorted by year, in alpha order. Both OCA and PM access and update this shared drive.

Contact Information:

General and High-Risk Contracts Monitoring

Monitoring of General Contracts:

  • OCA and PM have created aContract Monitoring Checklist for distribution to departmental contract administrators at the discretion of the PM or OCA contract official
  • Checklist is primarily informational
  • Checklist is customized to individual contract considerations, e.g.:
  • Termination requirements, notices, etc.
  • Checklist specifies basic contract administrator responsibilities, including that:
  • Invoices are reviewed, and appropriate authority to pay or correct has been granted,
  • Any contract revenue isproperly verified and deposited,
  • Vendor issues aredocumented internally (escalate to OCA or PM as req’d),
  • Disputes with contractors are coordinated with appropriate contract office (PM/OCA).

Monitoring of High-Risk Contracts:

PM and OCA work together to handle high-risk contracts to ensure departmental administrators understand their responsibilities related to the contract.

  • OCA and/or PM meet with departmental administrators of high-risk contracts to ensure they understand monitoring responsibilities
  • OCA and PM discusswith department a high-risk contract monitoring checklist:
  • Signed and returned to PM or OCA by dept. administrator, attesting that:
  • Invoices are reviewed, appropriate authority to pay or correct has been granted,
  • Scope of work described is being performed,
  • Mitigate risk, ID responsible parties, document mutual understanding of responsibilities,
  • Retained in contract file.

Processes to Identify High-Risk Contracts

OCA and PM determine contracts to be classified “high-risk”

  • Value Criteria:
  • Requires Office of General Counsel review and approval (>$500K non-construction contracts),
  • Requires President and Coard of Regents approval ($1M +).
  • Non-Value Criteria:
  • Affects students directly (e.g., food service, bank services),
  • Binds UTD to another country’s or state’s law(s),
  • Delivers services critical to UT Dallas mission.

Complaints and Termination Procedures

Vendor Performance:

  • Vendor issues are documented departmentally and the appropriate contract office notified of:
  • Billing errors,
  • Work (or billing) beyond the agreed Scope of Work,
  • Defaults,
  • Missing scheduled milestones,
  • Poor or non-performance,
  • Any concerns that may delay or alter payment.
  • OCA and/or PM are available to discuss vendor issues and potential remedies with departments.
  • OCA and PM share vendor performance data.
  • OCA and/or PM provide guidance in notifying and working with vendor in a constructive manner before initiating corrective process.

Complaints and Correction (Including Termination)

  • OCA and/or PM are involved in coordinating corrective actions between vendor and dept.:
  • Facilitate proper documentation, compliance, and professional resolution,
  • Present complaint options to departmental leaders and stakeholders.
  • If contract termination is appropriate and necessary, it must be done in writing by PM or OCA:
  • Documented in the Comptroller’s Vendor Performance Tracking System (VPTS) database (UT Dallas is exempt from legal requirement to use VT system, but will document poor performance in this system as a best practice).
  • PM and OCA share access to the VPTS database and work closely together to update this state-wide system with vendor performance data as required.