Part 5, Chapter 5: Manual Exhibit 5-5.12B

AUTHORITY DELEGATED AND TO WHOM

Pursuant to the authority delegated to the Associate Director, Office of Information Resources Management, Indian Health Service (IHS), by the Director of Headquarters Operations, on July 19, 1994, I hereby delegate to the Area Directors, for their respective Areas, the authority for the acquisition of Federal Information Processing (FIP) Resources, including Public Law 93-638 contracts, as follows:

1. For those IHS Areas designated as Reinvention Laboratories (Phoenix Area and Alaska Area), the Delegation of Procurement Authority is:  $100,000 per requirement for acquisition of FIP resources.

   For FIP acquisitions from Federal Supply Schedules, the order limit is the maximum order limitation of the schedule or $250,000, whichever is less.

2. For all other IHS Areas, the Delegation of Procurement Authority is:  Per requirement, up to the Small Purchase Limit as defined by the Federal Acquisition Regulations (FAR) and the Federal Information Resources Management Regulations (FIRMR).  These regulations are maintained by the Contracting Officer and Information Systems Coordinator.

   For FIP acquisitions from Federal Supply Schedules, the order limit is the maximum order limitation of the schedule or $250,000, whichever is less.

3. For all other requirements, authority must be obtained from the Associate Director, Office of Information Resources Management.

REDELEGATION

This authority may be redelegated to the Area Information Systems Coordinator or his/her delegee for the information systems requirements.

INFORMATION AND GUIDANCE

Only the information requirements of this delegation are to be administered by the Area Information Systems Coordinator (ISC).  The acquisition of FIP resources approved by the ISC, or his/her delegee, can only be approved by a contracting officer who has been appointed in accordance with the Federal Acquisition Regulations subpart 1.6.

This delegation of authority is to be used in conjunction with established procedures published in the Indian Health Manual, Part 5, Chapter 17 Acquisition of Federal Information Processing Resources.

For FIP acquisitions that exceed the delegated authority identified above, IHS officials will continue to seek specific acquisition delegations in accordance with existing IHS, GSA, Department of Health and Human Service (HHS), and Public Health Service (PHS) Information Resources Management (IRM) policies.

With this increased authority comes the responsibility to comply with the applicable GSA policies, presented in the FIRMR, HHS policies, presented in the HHS IRM Manual and supplemented by the DHHS IRM Circular series, and PHS IRM policies, presented in the PHS IRM Manual.  Compliance with all of these policies will be monitored through triennial reviews of the IRM programs of the IHS.

PRIOR DELEGATIONS

This delegation supersedes the delegation contained in the Indian Health Manual, Part 1, Chapter 5, Delegations of Authority, Subject:  Acquisition of ADP Equipment, Software, Maintenance, Support Services, and Services, Exhibit 1-5.2H2, dated May 10, 1988; Exhibit 1-5.2H2(A), dated May 12, 1988; and Exhibit 1-5.2H2(B), dated May 12, 1988.

Previous regulatory delegations of procurement authority for the acquisition of FIP resources, issued by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Health (OASH) in PHS IRM Manual Chapter 4-10-90 Approval Process for Federal Information Processing (FIP) Resources Within PHS Agencies, and referenced in PHS Chapter 4-30 Delegation of Procurement Authority (DPA) for the Procurement of FIP Resources and PHS Chapter 4-35 OASH Agency Procurement Request (APR) Approval Thresholds for FIP Resources, are obsolete as of the date of this memorandum. Exhibit 4-10-A, PHS IRM Manual Chapter 4-10, will be updated in the near future to reflect the procurement authority described above, and possibly other increases which may be forthcoming from GSA.

EFFECTIVE DATE

This delegation is effective upon date of signature.