CMU revises contracting policy; president can grant consent to engage in business relationships

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Any entity wedged in litigation with CMU can now engage in contracts with the institution, despite a policy installed earlier this fall that expelled doing so.

A revised policy, which was put into place Oct. 13, allows University President George Ross to grant consent for such contracts. Tom Trionfi, director of contracting, purchasing and health services, said the revision was incorporated because there was no way to make an exception or appeal in the original policy.

“The president has the capability with the revision of the policy to make sure the university’s best interests are always taken into consideration,” Trionfi said.

The original policy, effective Sept. 1, states “the university will not engage in a business relationship with any person or entity that is a party to a lawsuit against the university or involved in an alternative dispute resolution process against the university.”

Trionfi said other institutions inquired what CMU’s official policy was in situations involving business disputes, prompting the policy’s fruition. The issue was never addressed before, he said.

“From our perspective, it just makes good sense that if we are having current litigation problems, we wouldn’t continue to have business with them until those things were resolved,” Trionfi said.

Ross’ ability to make exceptions in the policy is just an option on the table for future use if needed, Trionfi said. At this time, CMU is not trying to engage in new contracts with any entities or persons the university is in a lawsuit with, he said.

General Counsel Manuel Rupe said in an e-mailed statement the issue of whether to engage in new business relationships with a corporation depends on if it would be reckless for CMU to continue working with them, based on the policy’s criteria.

“If a business owed CMU money and had failed to perform obligations owed to CMU under a contract, then CMU may determine that it would not be prudent to enter into a new contract with such business,” he said. “But that would need to be determined based on the facts.”

Rupe said the policy looks at what is in the best interest of CMU before deciding to enter into a new business relationship, without considering whether the matter has progressed to litigation.

“Thus, for example, if an engineering and design firm has errors or omissions in its design of a building which causes CMU to incur additional construction costs, then under the policy, CMU would consider such concerns if approached by the same firm to perform design work,” he said.

Trionfi said it is unlikely departments will be negatively impacted with the policy changes. However, he said it is hard to speculate what the future could bring in terms of business relationships.

“What we did with the policy was make sure that if a department already had a contract in place,” he said, “we wouldn’t adversely impact it.”