Procurement

AUA has a centralized purchasing system managed by the Purchasing Office, which has primary responsibility for carrying out the procurement of goods and services or channeling purchasing requests to the appropriate procurement committee.

All procurements are fulfilled in an open, competitive, fair, and transparent process that ensures equal opportunity for vendors and the best value for the University.

Thresholds and procurement processes

• Micro Purchases: Requests for goods or services under the applicable threshold for micro purchases ($1,000 for AUAC in the U.S. and AMD 200,000 for AUAF in Armenia), are processed upon approval by the head of the requesting unit or department.
• Simplified Procurement: For goods and services having initial cost estimates for simplified procurements ($1,001-20,000 for AUAC in the U.S. and AMD 200,001-10,000,000 for AUAF in Armenia), the process requires obtaining at least three (3) written quotations from vendors and subsequently analyzing the quotations received using the pre-established rubrics of quality, service, vendor track-record, and related factors to justify the selection.
• Formal Competitive Bidding: For procurements with an estimated cost in excess of $20,000 (for AUAC) and AMD 10,000,000 (for AUAF), the University requires a formal competitive bidding process.

Suppliers must fully comply with all specifications, terms, and conditions of the open bids, as published. Proposals may be submitted according to the instructions provided in the RFP. Only qualified suppliers should participate in published open bids.

Bid prices received from local vendors should be expressed exclusively in Armenian Drams (AMD) for all line items.

AUA reserves the right to reject any or all bids received.

• In the case of simplified procurements (requiring three quotes), only the selected bidder will receive notification pursuant to the corresponding committee’s review/decision.
• In the case of using the open bidding process, the corresponding procurement committee prepares the bidding package that formally opens the process with an invitation to participate in the bidding; the related process description and project-specific technical requirements; application for participation in the competition; pre-established vendor selection criteria, and other relevant information applicable to the specific procurement.

In case of open bidding, notification will be sent to all participating vendors.

Sole source purchasing

AUA may consider sole source procurement in exceptional situations when a particular item or service is only available from a single vendor or manufacturer with appropriate documentation of such conditions.

AUA has announced the following public tenders.