Signing their Documents

Avoid accepting terms that violate University policy or that could impose unexpected or unacceptable obligations on your department. DO NOT sign a Vendor's proposed agreement. Many agreements have Indemnification and Limitation of Liability clauses that assume risk prohibited by the Regents.

The Low Value Delegated Authority allows departments to engage low risk services which do not exceed $2,500. Any commitments exceeding that authority can be made only by the Purchasing Department. Personnel services are generally not considered low risk because co-employment
and tax issues. Moreover, non-employees working on UCSF property need to be insured, not just for accidents but also for other personal injuries, like breach of confidentiality and violation of rights or obligations relating to intellectual property.

Finally, Vendor contract often include onerous buy-out or no hire clauses which can penalize the hiring department for as much as a full year's salary of the individual. The Campus Contracts listed in this site have terms that are very favorable to the University in this regard.

Define the Work

Make sure both you and the Vendor know what work is to be done, what the qualifications of a person performing that work should be, and what the expectations are of a contractor's final work product. Also, be sure that you own the work product for which you paid. If the contract is designated a Work For Hire, UCSF will own any tangibles created by that individual.

Right to Dismiss

Make sure you can dismiss someone who is unable to perform the work that you have contracted for. This is especially important when hiring temporary staff. Temporary agencies sometimes have a minimum amount of time a temporary employee (Temp) is to be paid if they are dismissed from a job, but they also have guarantees that the staff they provide will be qualified for the work that staff has been hired for.

Questions / Concerns

These are just a few of the areas of concern. If you are unfamiliar with any aspect of the contracting process, we encourage to contact Purchasing at Purchasing@finance.ucsf.edu for advice and guidance.