Spotlight on state procurement

The National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) has released the 2011-2012 edition of the “NASPO Survey of State Procurement Practices.” This edition of the NASPO Survey gives an overview of procurement laws, regulations and practices among the states, and it offers insight on the various initiatives states have implemented.

The latest version of the NASPO survey contains 28 sections of data collected from Central Procurement Offices in the first quarter of 2012. It includes information on:

· State procurement laws, regulations, and policies

· Procurement authority and delegation

· State purchasing office fees

· Solicitation practices, RFP/IFB distribution

· Electronic procurement

· Vendor registration and bidders’ list practices

· Cooperative purchasing

· Preference policies

· Conflicts of interest and ethics

· Purchasing information technology

· Green purchasing

For the 2011-2012 edition, the survey was broken down into three parts. The number of respondents to each part varied from 48 states responding to Part I, 44 states responding to Part II, and 42 states responding to Part III. The states of Illinois, New Mexico, and Rhode Island did not respond to any part of the survey.

The results of the 2011-2012 edition of the “NASPO Survey of State Procurement Practices” are presented in the summary report. Information contained in the survey was collected from all states that completed the online survey during the first quarter of 2012 and reflects statutes, laws and regulations, policies and agency practices as current at the time the data was collected up to March 31, 2012.

All states have procurement laws, regulations and policies. A list of URLs for general statutes or specific purchasing statutes and/or policies, where available, is presented in Appendix I at the end of the report. More than half of the states responding to the survey have adopted the American Bar Association Model Procurement Code in its entirety or partially.

The NASPO Survey Page has more information on the report and has a link to a Survey Summary Report that is free and available to the public. The survey page tells how non-NASPO members can buy a downloadable version of the survey for $95. The same page has a link for NASPO members to click so they can access the complete survey data using their login on to NASPO.org.

For any questions related to the NASPO Survey, contact Elena Moreland, NASPO Senior Policy Analyst at [email protected].