Dufferin County has altered its purchasing policy, such that the council will retain control without having to approve all expenditures.

Under the new policy, purchases of goods and services may exceed specific budgeted amounts - but the over-all department spending for any class of purchase must come within budget for that class.

Previously, specific budgets were set for each item.

This change, according to the rationale, is to overcome problems caused by "unforeseen circumstances or by poor budget estimates." The weight under the change is given to the importance of the purchase and to consideration for the over all limit for each "area of the budget."

Another major change is with respect to the amounts that department heads are authorized to spend, and how they may go about doing so.

For amounts up to $3,000, the department head or a designate may obtain prices of objects competitively in any manner. Bids need not be submitted for such smaller amounts.

If the costs are likely to be between $3,001 and $8,000, the department would require three competitive bids. These may be either oral or written.

Three written bids are required when the amount involved would be between $8,001 and $50,000.

In all cases, the controlling budget would have been approved by the council, and all purchases would be reported to the appropriate committee after the fact.

For amounts in excess of $50,000, the object or service would be formally tendered, or the county would issue a request for proposals. In this case, the approval would have to be by the committee and the council.

Previously, tendering was required for anything over $30,000.

The changes came about through a routine review of the policy as required every three years under the "procurement bylaw." The rationale for the increased limits was stated as being "to reflect price increases over the past few years."

County council will continue to appoint such as auditors, bankers and insurers for periods of three years or less, although the bylaw has been changed to conform to the Municipal Act - which would allow such appointments to be for fiveyear terms.

The financial impact of changes to the procurement bylaw are considered to be minimal, but the advantage would be time-saving for both Council and the departments.

Although purchases would not necessarily be reviewed by the council, they would be reported to the appropriate committee.

"The stipulation remains that any purchases exceeding approved budgets will always come before council. Therefore, council has the assurances that if purchase decisions are not coming before them, those purchases are within budget," said treasurer Alan Selby in his report.