School districts, cities, counties, and other local governmental entities have a lot of responsibility when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars, including adhering to a long list of bidding and purchasing laws intended to ensure a fair and competitive procurement process.
In addition to ensuring compliance, entities are facing ever increasing challenges, such as supply chain disruptions, inflationary pressures and ongoing uncertainty for vendors dealing with staffing and materials shortages.
Not surprisingly, the time needed to move through the procurement process — from researching, preparing, and conducting a formal request for proposals, request for qualifications, or similar competitive solicitation to awarding a contract — can take months.
In this environment, interlocal purchasing cooperatives — such as The Local Government Purchasing Cooperative, commonly known as BuyBoard® — offer another way to help entities manage their procurement process.
“BuyBoard’s competitive solicitation and contract award process can help Cooperative members fast forward in the procurement cycle,” said Arturo Salinas, Assistant Division Director of Cooperative Purchasing for TASB, which serves as administrator for BuyBoard, which has been making government purchasing easier and more efficient since 1998. “From an overhead and administrative expense perspective, we can help members save time and money with an easy-to-use online purchasing system.”
Yet some public entities may worry that using a purchasing cooperative may lessen their ability to build strong relationships with suppliers. After all, the public procurement process is designed to ensure transparency and accountability.
“BuyBoard uses a transparent, competitive, publicly advertised solicitation process similar to requests for proposals used by our members under the Texas Education Code. That includes evaluating vendors based on the published criteria and requirements set forth in the solicitation,” Salinas said. “There are no shortcuts in government procurement, but since BuyBoard is doing some of the administrative work on the front end, we’re creating efficiencies by doing the heavy lifting.”
In fact, every vendor/supplier awarded a BuyBoard contract generally gets evaluated to determine best value to members, typically using the following criteria:
- Price competitiveness
- Vendor past performance
- Vendor reputation for goods and services
- Financial and technical resources
- Capability of serving Cooperative members
- Any other factor or requirement listed in the proposal invitation
On average, BuyBoard releases 25 to 35 RFPs every year and every response gets reviewed and scored. Those recommended for award are then presented to the Cooperative’s 11-member board of trustees, who meet quarterly to review and award contracts.
“Our district likes purchasing under the BuyBoard coop because it assures us that we are getting competitive pricing from fully vetted vendors while always staying compliant,” said Carol Blain, Purchasing Coordinator for Friendswood ISD in the Houston region.
Members with questions can request copies of proposal invitations, proposal tabulations and scoring matrices, Salinas said, noting that up to 20% of respondents aren’t awarded a contract because of price, past performance, reputation, technical or non-responsive issues. Often, BuyBoard trustees will award multiple vendors in contract categories, helping ensure all areas of the state have options for products or services, including for items that may be localized, like custodial or landscaping.
Although interlocal purchasing cooperatives can do much to simplify the procurement process for members, Salinas cautions that it’s very important for public entities to look at specific requirements that might apply to a specific purchase, such as local requirements or requirements related to funding sources (like grants, bonds, and federal funds.
“We never want members to think BuyBoard can do everything,” he said. “Certain requirements are best addressed at the local level.”
