Meeting the Challenges of World-Class Procurement

A briefing paper by NASPO

State governments continue to be challenged economically and increasingly see procurement as a key to reducing costs and saving taxpayer dollars. This paper looks at the challenges faced by senior procurement officials in administering a procurement system that achieves value, provides an equitable change for companies to participate, and overall promotes public confidence in the integrity of the process. The focus of this paper is on what our elected officials and other senior leadership can do to reach these goals.

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In-State Preferences

A briefing paper by NASPO

Each year vendors are faced with a political reality, public procurement being used as a policy tool: state legislators considering legislation that give in-state preferences in response to local businesses lobbying for preferences in contract awards.

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State Procurement Small Business Socio-Economic Consideration

A briefing paper by NASPO

The fundamental purpose of state procurement is to acquire the goods and services needed for the operation of government. The objective is to acquire these items at the nest value, price and other factors considered. In any procurement statute, many of the provisions are directed to this end. It is inevitable, however, that other state policies influence the procurement function. Frequently, the magnitude of state socio-economic objectives that do not directly pertain to the procurement of goods and services, may contradict the basic policy to obtain the best value for goods and services. The purpose of this paper is to make several observations concerning this phenomenon and identify competing views as they relate to the small business socio-economic consideration.

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