Contract Review, Approval & Management Policy

Policy Overview

Contracts signed with outside parties, including vendors and consultants, can represent a large financial commitment on behalf of the University. Local units are responsible for ensuring contracts are reasonable and do not subject the University to unnecessary risk. Only authorized employees can enter into contractual agreements on behalf of the University, and contracts should be reviewed to ensure terms are reasonable including services performed, deliverables, term and payments.

Review and Approval Practices

Below are guidelines that should be followed by all UIS and OAS managers and directors with respect to contract review and approval. These guidelines outline the proper review and approval procedures for entering into contracts and other agreements to purchase or lease products and services.

Director Approval
All contracts that commit the University to purchase or lease products and/or services beyond a single one-time purchase, regardless of amount or length of contract, should be reviewed and signed by the appropriate Director of the group entering into the agreement.

Additional Review
New contract agreements, or amendments to existing agreements, that commit the University to purchase or payout (in the event of contract termination) an amount greater than $250,000 over the life of the contract period, must also be reviewed and approved by the Executive Director of IT Infrastructure for all UIS groups or the Director of OAS.

OGC Review
Contracts should also be forwarded to the Office of the General Counsel (OGC) at the University for additional (legal) review. If there is any doubt about the contract language, the overall cost, or the financial commitments contained in an agreement, the OGC is available to assist Directors in negotiating the contract terms.

Software Licensing Review
All software contracts should also be discussed with Software Licensing to:

• Ensure that existing university-wide agreements are appropriately leveraged;
• Give Software Licensing visibility to the demand for products that could be candidates for university-wide agreements; and/or
• Leverage the extensive expertise that exists within the group to negotiate an optimal deal for the University.

Contract Riders

Any contract with an external vendor who works with Harvard confidential information, including credit card and other financial information covered by the Gramm Leach Bliley Act, must have the appropriate contract rider associated with it. This applies to re-negotiated contracts as well as new agreements.

Contract riders can be found at http://www.security.harvard.edu/protected_files/contract.php (this is a PIN protected site) . This security web site is also a source of guidelines for appropriate use of Harvard data, both financial and confidential.

File Management

The group negotiating the contract is responsible for managing the original contract, all subsequent amendments and any supporting documentation through their local file management and archiving systems.