The purchasing of consulting services follows the same supplier selection process identified in section 3.2.12 Vendor Selection of this manual. Consulting services may be requested by submitting a purchase request or in some cases (in accordance with section 3.1 of this manual) they may be paid for by payment request.  Regardless of the method of payment, consulting agreements should only be entered into once it has been determined that the consultant should not be considered an employee of the University.  Departments should complete the Independent Contractor Determination Checklist (see Forms/Instructions below) prior to entering into a consulting agreement with a consultant.

Whenever a University department is hiring a consultant, the UGA consulting agreement (see Forms/Instructions below) should be fully executed prior to the start of the consulting.  Departments should be aware that if the consultant is paid for the advice rendered, the consultant will not be permitted to bid on any work resulting directly from the consulting services.  Advice rendered without payment does not prohibit the consultant from participating in resulting bid opportunities.

It is the responsibility of the benefiting department to ensure that the daily rate paid is reasonable and, if funded by a sponsoring Federal agency - either directly or as flow through from another sponsor - that it does not exceed the maximum approved rate of that Federal agency. The Post Award Accounting Department will monitor the payment process to further ensure that proper rates are used when Federal funds are the source.