Monitoring Procurement Issues →
What the Gold Standard in Cooperative Procurement Means
Attaining the gold standard in cooperative procurement takes a lot of work. NASPO ValuePoint has grown to be the nation’s largest public cooperative contracting organization. And we do not take it lightly.
Keys to holding the gold standard cooperative status:
- Purchasing power of all 50 states
- Proven best value pricing
- Lowest administrative costs of processing solicitations
- Superior level of terms and conditions to save time in procuring
- Established for over 25 years providing you with hundreds of years of accumulated public procurement experience.
What sets ValuePoint apart from other purchasing cooperatives?
We provide you with best value contracts.
The ValuePoint purchasing cooperative program is led by State Procurement Officers. In contrast to many other purchasing cooperatives, ValuePoint is a “pure” cooperative. A multi-state team of procurement and subject matter experts cooperate in the creation of the solicitation, which is conducted by a lead state, in full compliance with that state’s laws and procedures, including public notice requirements. With the purchasing leverage of all 50 states, ValuePoint contracts consistently offer better contracts at lower costs. In addition, ValuePoint contracts are benchmarked and audited by third-party professionals to ensure best-in-class pricing as well as superior terms and conditions.
Hear from the State Procurement Officers themselves:
| No upfront costs or membership fees to use a NASPO ValuePoint contract.
There are no membership fees to use NASPO ValuePoint contracts. NASPO ValuePoint does collect a small administrative fee from its contractors when they make a sale. These fees set by the NASPO ValuePoint Board help fund NASPO ValuePoint and National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) operations and reimburse approved costs of states participating in the cooperative procurement. The fee is collected by the contractor at the point of sale and remitted to NASPO ValuePoint. Source: Report to the Utah Legislature Number 2014-11, “A Review of Allegations Concerning Utah’s Purchasing Interaction with WSCA-NASPO”, December 2014. |
| How do the administrative fees compare to other cooperative purchasing fees?
NASPO ValuePoint has lowest administrative fee. NASPO ValuePoint’s standard administrative fees are typically between -0- and 0.25%. Because of the scale of NASPO ValuePoint cooperative procurements administrative fees are typically the lowest found of any cooperative procurement. According to a December 18, 2014 report by the State of Utah, Office of the Legislative Auditor General, “The administrative fees on WSCA-NASPO contracts are at least three times lower than those on contracts used by other cooperatives. The Legislative Auditor General wrote further, “A comparatively low administrative fee contributes to the low WSCA-NASPO contract prices”. . . “The overall fee rate when considering total contract sales and total fees collected was 0.14 percent for calendar year 2013.” Source: Report to the Utah Legislature Number 2014-11, “A Review of Allegations Concerning Utah’s Purchasing Interaction with WSCA-NASPO”, December 2014. |
How does the administrative fee affect the prices paid by a participating government?
Minimally since ValuePoint exists solely to support you as public procurement officials.
Generally, the administrative fee paid by contractors has little impact on the pricing charged to the purchasing organization. In a December 18, 2014 the Utah Office of the Legislative Auditor General reported, “The WSCA-NASPO administrative fee included on most of the organization’s contracts does not appear to affect the final price of goods.”
Source: Report to the Utah Legislature Number 2014-11, “A Review of Allegations Concerning Utah’s Purchasing Interaction with WSCA-NASPO”, December 2014.
Choosing the NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization elevates your partnership level to gold status.
NASPO ValuePoint is a unified, nationally focused cooperative alliance aggregating the demand of all 50 states, the District of Columbia and the organized US territories, their political subdivisions and other eligible entities, spurring best, innovation and competition in the marketplace. The NASPO ValuePoint Cooperative Purchasing Organization provides the highest standard of excellence in public cooperative contracting. By leveraging the leadership and expertise of all states with the purchasing power of their public entities, NASPO ValuePoint delivers best value, reliable, competitively sourced contracts that offer public entities outstanding pricing. Since 1992 WSCA-NASPO has been the cooperative purchasing arm of NASPO (the National Association of State Procurement Officials) encouraging, fostering and guiding the nation’s most significant public contract cooperative.
All the cooperative contracts are led by one of the 50 states on behalf of the other states. ValuePoint Sourcing Teams of the best and the brightest public procurement and subject matter experts oversee competitive procurement processes ensuring that the resulting contracts are transparent and fully in compliance with applicable state laws.
Hear about ValuePoint from the State Leads themselves:
ValuePoint is a non-profit subsidiary of the National Association of State Procurement Officials to provide states, local governments, public educational entities, etc. with best value contracts to support their important missions. NASPO, the National Association of State Procurement Officials, is a non-profit association dedicated to advancing public procurement through leadership, excellence and integrity. Made up of the directors of the central purchasing offices in each of the 50 states as well as the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States, NASPO helps its members achieve success as public procurement leaders through the promotion of best practices, education, professional development, research and innovative procurement strategies.
