The Commonwealth's Information Technology Procurement Manual (ITPM) is published by the Virginia Information Technologies Agency (VITA) under the authority granted to it by § 2.2-2012 of the Code of Virginia. The ITPM complies with §2.2-2012(A) which provides as follows: "The CIO shall develop policies, standards, and guidelines for the procurement of information technology of every description." The Commonwealth's Chief Information Officer (CIO), appointed by the Governor, has assigned VITA's Supply Chain Management Division (SCM) with this duty.
Based on the foregoing, this manual establishes policies, standards and guidelines to be followed by every executive branch agency as defined in § 2.2-2006 of the Code of Virginia, within their delegated authority limits or such delegated authority as determined by VITA.
For the purposes of this manual, the following definitions taken from the Code of Virginia apply:
"Executive branch agency" or "agency" means any agency, institution, board, bureau, commission, council, public institution of higher education, or instrumentality of state government in the executive department listed in the appropriation act. However, "executive branch agency" or "agency" does not include the University of Virginia Medical Center, a public institution of higher education to the extent exempt from this chapter pursuant to the Restructured Higher Education Financial and Administrative Operations Act (§ 23.1-1000 et seq.) or other law, or the Virginia Port Authority.
"Public body" means any legislative, executive or judicial body, agency, office, department, authority, post, commission, committee, institution, board or political subdivision created by law to exercise some sovereign power or to perform some governmental duty, and empowered by law to undertake the activities described in this chapter. "Public body" shall include (i) any independent agency of the Commonwealth, and (ii) any metropolitan planning organization or planning district commission which operates exclusively within the Commonwealth of Virginia."
"Information technology" means communications, telecommunications, automated data processing, applications, databases, data networks, the Internet, management information systems, and related information, equipment, goods, and services. The provisions of this chapter shall not be construed to hamper the pursuit of the missions of the institutions in instruction and research."
"Telecommunications" means any origination, transmission, emission, or reception of data, signs, signals, writings, images, and sounds or intelligence of any nature, by wire, radio, television, optical, or other electromagnetic systems.
All VITA procurement policies and procedures contained within this manual comply fully with § 2.2-4300 et seq. of the Code of Virginia, (The Virginia Public Procurement Act) (VPPA). Throughout this manual, appropriate references are made to those procurement requirements specifically required by the Code of Virginia and the VPPA.
The Virginia General Assembly established VITA as the statutory central procurement agency for IT to accomplish the following objectives:
In addition to complying with statutory requirements, the policies, standards and guidelines included in this manual are based on generally accepted government and industry best practices for the procurement of IT.
VITA is the Commonwealth's statutory central procurement agency
for IT goods and services.
The objective of this manual is to integrate the Virginia Public Procurement Act (VPPA) with VITA's procurement policies, standards and guidelines and the IT industry's best practice concepts, guidance and tools for these purposes:
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VITA's key operating principles for IT procurement |
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