Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1930 [PAGE 421]

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418

board of trustees

[October 10

Comptroller proper authority to make purchases for the University, unless specific directions are given by the Board to make the particular purchases. The authority of the Comptroller will be found in Section 45-A, page 34 of the Extracts from the Laws of the Board of Trustees, dated December, 1926. Section 46 on the following page describes the authority of the Purchasing Agent w h o acts under the general direction of the Comptroller. I call your attentionfirstto Section C of Article 45, providing that "no expenditures shall be made excepting on authority of the Board and after an appropriation has been made therefor, as evidenced by its records." 1 call your attention also to the statement in Section 46 to the effect that the Purchasing Agent shall not make purchases "unless the records of the Board show that the purchase has been authorized and that an appropriation has been made therefor by the Board." In view of these provisions, I beg leave to submit the following questions: 1. Is the making of an appropriation by the Board sufficient authorization for the Comptroller, through the Purchasing Agent, to go ahead and purchase the article or articles for which the appropriation is made, or is it your opinion that in addition to making the appropriation the Board records must show action specifically authorizing the purchase? 2. Appropriations are made in the budget of the University either for the purchase of single articles or of a group of articles of the same general character and described under the same general head. For example, an appropriation of $200 m a y be made for the purchase of a single microscope or other specifically named piece of apparatus. O n the other hand, an appropriation m a y be made, as has been the custom for the past twenty-five years or more, if not previously, for a group of articles under some general head such as, "Equipment for the School of Music," "Equipment for the College of Engineering," or what not. If an appropriation of the latter kind is made for, w e will say, equipment for the School of Music, is it necessary, under the rule, or under the law, or both, that each particular, separate piece of equipment to be bought shall also be authorized specifically by the Board, or m a y the Comptroller make the purchase of the various pieces of apparatus or equipment necessary and charge each of these to the appropriation for the general purpose? It is understood that when an appropriation is made for such a general purpose as equipment the list of things desired has been submitted by the department head and the dean to the President for inspection and approval or disapproval. A s a matter of fact, practically every department in the University makes a request for equipment involving a much larger expenditure than I a m ordinarily willing to approve. I have, therefore, in most cases, cut down the amount asked for before submitting m y recommendations to the Board. The changing of the original list submitted m a y change the order of importance of the remaining articles for which an appropriation is made in toto. That is to say, if the department head asks for $20,000 for equipment, say, in M e chanical Engineering, and submits a list of things which he would like to buy with $20,000 and receives only $10,000 he m a y revise his list and make a new list with a different scale of relative importance assigned to the articles in the original list. In other words, he must choose which are of most importance within the $10,000 limit. It is, therefore, practically impossible to decide in advance exactly what particular pieces of apparatus the appropriation m a y be used to get, excepting in a general way. One reason for this is that the people w h o make up these lists prepare them far in advance. Some of the people w h o make them up are not present when the budget is adopted and new requirements for apparatus, due to changing enrollment, m a y come up at any time after the opening of the year and, of course, after the budget has been approved. T o give some illustrations: (1) A certain sum of money is appropriated for the purchase of library books. Is the Comptroller at liberty under his general authority to approve and purchase the books recommended by the heads of departments with the approval of the Librarian, or should he submit the title and price of each single but the purchaseElectricalappropriation toasone aDirector equipment.would illustration booktheappropriationarticlesis toin samebypurchasedifferent dynamo theof yMechanical by charged or the receive authority where the it? This is School a the C o m p troller the Board involved sent the School equipment or of thean or M and be bought and A to President, whetherEngineering, for theMusic for fordates of in a group, after Engineering against an made the one by in at case, a example, departments. (2) n principle to is submitted of lathe in either extreme approved