the municipal secretary desktop reference manual - Southwestern ...

NOTES
INTERGOVERNMENTAL PURCHASING ARRANGEMENTS
Municipalities, particularly small local governments, have Agolden opportunities@ to engage
in potential cost saving activities offered by cooperative purchasing arrangements. The
intergovernmental Chapter of Act 177 (1996) provides jurisdiction with numerous alternative ways
which they may use to produce such cost savings:
! cooperative efforts with one or more neighboring jurisdiction to purchase one or more
item;
! cooperative efforts with private schools, colleges or universities and nonprofit human
service agencies to purchase items of common use;
! join a council of government which has a purchasing program, or promote such a
program if one does not exist in a council to which the jurisdiction belongs, or
encourage the creation of a council; and
! pressure the county to permit local governments within the county to piggyback
purchases off contacts executed by the county.
Examples of various types of cooperative purchasing efforts are shown in Table One.
Table One
EXAMPLES OF COOPERATIVE PURCHASING PROGRAMS
The Blair County Cooperative
The Blair County Cooperative is a voluntary organization of ten governmental entities within
the county to jointly bid commodities and services of mutual interest to its members. Founded in
1994, the Cooperative conducts two bids per year, in the spring and fall, and will bid any item of
interest to two or more members.
All members benefit from lower unit prices available by 'piggybacking' on the bids of larger
members (such as Blair County). Participating governments are responsible for purchasing 75
percent of their bid estimate to ensure the supplier of a large quantity resulting in a lower per unit
cost. Bids and specifications are reviewed by the Cooperative's Technical Committee composed of
one purchasing representative from each member government.
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Revised May 2006