Responsibilities of the contract signatory
University officers who have been authorised to sign contracts on behalf of the University must ensure they are familiar with the Delegations Policy and the Delegations Procedure.
More detailed information can be found in our Exercising Signing Delegations guide.
Questions for the Signatory
Before signing, the authorised signatory should ask themselves the following questions:
- Am I authorised to sign this?
- Has someone taken ownership of the contract?
- Do I fully understand the proposed transaction and does it make sense?
- Should the contract be reviewed by Legal Services? Consider the factors described in this Fact Sheet.
- Have all stakeholders been consulted? If the proposed transaction impacts multiple Elements, it must be signed by an authorised signatory at Band 2B or above, and the other Elements must have given their approval before it is signed.
- Has the contract owner provided assurances that all relevant Subject Matter Experts have been consulted and all relevant University policies and procedures have been complied with? The Contract Approval & Signing Request Form is a useful tool to record this background information.
- Are the contractual risks acceptable to the University? You should consider the Risk Appetite Statement as part of this decision process.
- If the Contract involves Expenditure, do I have sufficient budget and financial delegation to approve that expenditure?
Contract Approval & Signing Request Form
The Contract Approval & Signing Request Form has been updated to reflect the new signing sub-delegations.
It is strongly recommended that authorised contract signatory insists that this form is completed by the contract owner before the contract is accepted for signing.In some areas, alternative check-lists have been developed to address local requirements. However, it is ultimately the responsibility of each signatory to determine what they require before they are willing to sign a particular contract.