Most of this is for people who don't know how federal disbursement of funds works:

As a former [now retired] Purchasing agent for the USPS, I too am familiar with PO's, having drafted thousands in my tenure. Every single official purchase made on behalf of the federal government MUST have a corresponding item/product GSA [or similar, compartmentalized intra-agency] code: from thermo-nuclear missiles to ambulances to fountain pens to sexual reassignment surgery to plastic FEMA coffins/body bags to Guillotines this is the case and those codes are there.

I used to get my kicks out of reading some of the more offbeat listings, because if there was a code that meant that at some point in time that item WAS authorized and purchased. So if those Guillotines really exist chances are there's a code for them. But, in those RARE cases where there are no existing codes you may have to get creative and piggy-back a previously unpurchased item onto a code for a product/service that may be only slightly similar.

In any event, as the dollar value increases so too does the approval process so that by the time tens [or hundreds] of thousands of dollars are being disbursed more and more people have to sign off on those PO's before they are approved and the money is actually spent.


So OP: when you handled PO's were you inaugurating them or merely approving and then passing them along up the food chain for dispersal of funds? And if it's the latter what was your monetary limit? This will help me understand the scope of what crossed your desk since I assume now that you're retired you are only handling personal/business purchases.