NASPO Honors Procurement Practices
NASPO Honors Procurement Practices
The National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) honored six innovative state procurement programs during its Annual Meeting in Mystic, CT, when it presented the Cronin Club awards. The awards are broken into two categories: Classic and Information Technology.
The 2005 Cronin Classic Award winners were: Gold Award, Commonwealth of Massachusetts for “Envirocalc: Environmental Benefits and Energy Cost Savings Calculator for Purchasers”; Silver Award, State of Michigan for “MiDEAL Program: Michigan Delivering Extended Agreements Locally”; and Bronze Award, State of New York for “Aggregated IT Procurement Program.”
The 2005 Cronin Information Technology Award winners were: Gold Award, State of Washington for “WEBS: Washington’s Electronic Business Solution”; Silver, State of Illinois, “Knowledge Management System”; and Bronze Award, State of New York, “Road Salt.”
More information on the awarded programs, as well as all the 2005 nominees, is available on the NASPO homepage at www.govinfo.bz/5196-260.
In other news, NASPO announced that Ellen Phillips, Deputy State Purchasing Agent for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, became the new president of NASPO, effective Sept. 1, 2005. Phillips assumed leadership of the association at the end of the association’s Annual Meeting.
Phillips’ goals for this year include promoting innovation, data-driven benchmarking, strategic sourcing, stakeholder involvement, and technology. Most important, said Phillips, are “reinforcing the leadership role that we play in establishing public procurement policy and best practices, and being proactive about emerging issues such as outsourcing/offshoring and efforts to privatize public procurement, an inherently governmental function.”
NASPO is a nonprofit association dedicated to strengthening the procurement community through education, research, and communication. It is made up of the directors of the central purchasing offices in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the territories of the United States.
