Reimagining & Building a Public Procurement Contract Sharing Community

By: James E. Foley, CPPO, Maricopa County; Cathy A. Muse, CPPO, Fairfax County; Jack Pellegrino, CPP, CPPO, CPCM, San Diego County; Gerald R. Plummer, Los Angeles County; Joseph Thomas, CPSM, C.P.M., Sedgwick County

The time is now to fulfill the promise and unlimited potential of state statutes encouraging cooperation among government agencies to improve the economy, efficiency, and effectiveness of public procurement.

Over the last several decades local, regional, and national non-profit and for-profit organizations have proliferated as a Cooperative to Government (C2G) model with varying success in aggregating purchases, reducing the number of competitive solicitations, and improving pricing.

The C2G model provides cooperatives an intermediary role as between government agencies sharing contracts and government agencies accessing contracts. C2G model cooperatives may include a range of management and legal structures, priorities, contracts, pricing, and government participation & oversight which may in turn require government agencies to navigate a complex and competing cooperative landscape.

Looking to the future, as Public Procurement Professionals, we have discussed and share a vision for a new and transformative Government to Government (G2G) model as a paradigm shift in the way government agencies share and access contracts.

The G2G model serves as a conduit to exchange an unlimited pipeline of new and existing contracts directly and openly among government agencies in alignment with and furtherance of state authorizing statutes.

Realizing the full potential and promise of government cooperation to improve public procurement economy, efficiency and effectiveness requires:

• Reimagining the current C2G cooperative model,
• Incorporating the current C2G strengths, and
• Building a new G2G Public Procurement Community.

We have identified the essential building blocks of a G2G Public Procurement Community:

• Intergovernmental Public-Private Partnership (IP3). Government responsible for oversight & direct contract sharing. Private sector delivers open access contract sharing technology.
• Marketplace. State of the art digital hub & conduit to share & access government contracts, delivering an unprecedented shopping & buying experience & capacity to scale.
• Engagement. Proactive participation of Public Purchasing Professionals to design and build the G2G model and to support and engage the Community, share best practices & ensure ongoing public value & ethics compliance.

We invite you to join the discussion. Together the full potential of exchanging government contracts by reimagining and building a new G2G Public Procurement Contract Sharing Community can be realized.

Contact us to learn more Advisor’s Team or visit www.ppexhub.com