the municipal secretary desktop reference manual - Southwestern ...

SECTION IX
MUNICIPAL PURCHASING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Foreword
Effective and efficient management and/or an environment of declining or no growth revenue
sources appear to dictate that municipal officials would seek a way to make their municipal
operations and processes more cost-effective. If this assumption is correct, then local government
officials should evaluate the processes used to obtain goods and services, which represent the second
largest items in their municipal budgets. It is most likely that their evaluation would indicate that
this function requires improvement and change.
Two broad policy considerations are available to those officials who want a purchasing
system designed to obtain goods and services at the least possible or most economical cost to the
local government.
One is external in nature and involves the municipality's participation in some form of
cooperative or intergovernmental purchasing. The other consideration is internal in nature. It
involves the centralization of purchasing authority in an individual (or department) and the adoption,
by actions of the governing body, of rules and regulations controlling the centralized purchasing
operation. These considerations or options are not mutually exclusive. They are both critical to
improving the cost-effectiveness of the purchasing operation.
The materials which are included in this section focus on both the external and internal policy
considerations.
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