Office of Procurement Services / Office of Information Technology

Sole Source Request (IT & non-IT purchases)

On July 1, 2015, new laws (HB825 & SB2400) went into effect requiring that sole source purchases undergo a more formalized certification process, including advertisement of the intent to award/purchase as a sole source, submittal to DFA (Mississippi Department of Finance and Administration) or ITS (Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services) oversight for approval to purchase, and submittal of verification after the purchase that the items purchased were as approved for purchase.

Using one of the links below, you must provide information that will be used to certify sole source for your desired purchase. The appropriate form is required for sole source requests that exceed $5,000 (for IT purchases, the amount is determined from evaluating the lifecycle costs of the project). The purchase requisition (PR) should be created prior to completing this form in order to provide the requisition number on these forms.

These forms do not allow you to save information and come back later to finish, so you will want to collect all of the requested information in advance and enter it at one time. Access to the forms requires WebID and password.

IT sole source purchases:

For IT sole source purchases in the range $5,001 to $250,000, the approval process is managed by the University, specifically by the Procurement and Information Technology offices. IT sole source purchases greater than $250,000 are managed by Mississippi Department of Information Technology Services (MDITS). For sole source purchases that exceed $250,000, the MSITS Sole Source Certification Request must also be completed. PDF and Word versions of this form are linked from the MSITS Procurement Forms website. More details can be found in the MDITS Procurement Handbook. Renewals that are within a contract term will not require completion of the forms. The IT sole source certification form linked below will prompt you for the following information:

  • Contact Info including name of person who "owns" this project
  • Product name, version, cost, contract term in years
  • Product summary
  • Requisition number
  • Sole source certification – Must respond to the following:
    • Specific business requirements to be met by the requested products or services
    • Why these products or services are the only ones that can meet your needs
    • Why the source is the only entity that can provide the products or services
    • Why the amount to be expended for the services is reasonable
    • What you have done to obtain the best possible price for the services
  • Vendor sole source letter and proposal
  • Acknowledgements of related policies

Non – IT sole source purchases:

The sole source certification form linked below will prompt you for the following information:

  • Contact Info
  • Requisition number
  • Product name and description, including manufacturer, model, etc.
  • Sole source certification ‐ Must respond to the following:
    • Why these products are the only ones that can meet your needs
    • Name of vendor and why the source is the only entity that can provide the product(s)
    • Description of the efforts to determine the vendor is the only one that can provide the needed commodity
    • Amount of the purchase and why the amount to be expended for the commodity is reasonable
    • Description of the efforts to obtain the best possible price for the commodity
  • Vendor signed quote / proposal
  • Acknowledgements of related policies
IT Sole Source Form Non IT Sole Source Form