Procurement standards
The rules a federal recipient must follow when buying goods and services with award money — documented competition above stated thresholds, written selection criteria, and a conflict-of-interest policy covering the people who decide.
Part of the GrantTrove grant funding glossary — one entry for every field the catalogue stores.
Also called Federal procurement rules · Purchasing standards
In detail
The thresholds are the part organisations trip over. Below a micro-purchase level almost nothing is required; above a simplified acquisition level a documented competitive process is, and the levels move.
The documentation is the requirement, not the outcome. Buying from the right supplier without a record of how the decision was made is still a finding.
Against allowable cost
Allowability asks whether the award may pay for a category of thing. Procurement asks whether the process of buying it was proper. A perfectly allowable purchase made without required competition is a questioned cost. Neither is a field here: the record holds what a notice said about the opportunity, not how a recipient later bought things.
How GrantTrove stores it
- `use_of_funds` records the spending categories a notice states, and reads Not stated where it states none.
- We do not publish thresholds or purchasing guidance. They move, they are set in regulation, and a stale copy would be worse than a link to the notice that cites them.
Common questions
Do procurement rules apply to a state subaward?
Where the money is federal, generally yes — the pass-through must pass the requirements down.
What are the thresholds?
They are set in regulation and they change, so we do not restate them. The notice cites the authority.
Is a sole-source purchase ever allowed?
Under stated conditions, with documentation. The regulation lists them.