{"id":1637,"date":"2023-02-20T17:21:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-20T22:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.mgocpa.com\/?post_type=perspective&p=1637"},"modified":"2025-07-07T08:59:36","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T13:59:36","slug":"procurement-and-purchasing-best-practices-for-state-and-local-governments","status":"publish","type":"perspective","link":"https:\/\/www.mgocpa.com\/perspective\/procurement-and-purchasing-best-practices-for-state-and-local-governments\/","title":{"rendered":"Procurement Best Practices for Your State or Local Government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

State and local governments spend billions of dollars a year procuring goods and services. However, during the procurement process, they can hit major snags and challenges that hinder them from successfully purchasing or procuring anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To prevent wasting valuable time and resources, it is important to perform assessments of policies, procedures and processes to identify inefficiencies and opportunities for improvement so your organization can succeed in its pursuits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Inefficiencies in Government Procurement and Purchasing Processes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The COVID-19 pandemic acted as a catalyst for many state and local governments, demonstrating that improvements were needed when it came to their procurement and purchasing processes. Thanks to federal relief programs like the CARES Act, many organizations were able to receive the funds for economic assistance. But these programs had time constraints, meaning the money had to be spent within a relatively short time frame. Many state and local governments were interested in using the funds to purchase goods, such as personal protective equipment, and to contract with subrecipients to provide services to populations in need, such as the homeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the procurement and contracting processes took time \u2014 oftentimes, more time than the state and local governments had with the constraints set by the relief programs. This meant the funds could be wasted if the contracts were not pushed through in a timely manner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remote work, which was not prevalent before the pandemic, revealed issues for many state and local governments related to <\/a>their lack of automated processes. For example, some organizations still collected \u201cwet\u201d signatures on resolutions and contracts instead of using digital programs like DocuSign. They only learned of inefficiencies like these when everyone was working from home, leaving them to wonder how to fix similar and additional issues plaguing them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Common Issues Facing Procurement and Purchasing<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Say your organization has an IT department that has a workflow requiring its staff to manage requests in a certain way. Instead of \u201ctouching\u201d the request just once and approving it, the purchasing employee must handle the same request three times. This is clearly inefficient, but oftentimes, state and local governments don\u2019t realize the snags their departments are facing throughout their processes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are several reasons why this could be. For example, you could have a team that is stretched too thin, with several people doing multiple jobs \u2014 there are too many things to process and not enough resources, leading to things slipping through the cracks. Maybe the organization is facing a lot of turnover or new management, and without clearly outlined processes, no one is sure how to spread the workload effectively. Bottlenecks can arise, hindering progress further. Without documented procedures, roles, and responsibilities, your team won\u2019t know who is responsible for what. And if your organization is decentralized \u2014 this can lead to even more confusion, slowing down procurement and contracting processes even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Details and Communication Are Essential<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If one of your departments requires a red truck and puts in a request without any detail, your purchasing department, could take a guess and buy a red truck \u2013 which may or may not meet the needs of the department. There are many kinds of red trucks, and by the department not specifying what red truck they want, time is wasted, slowing down whatever project the red truck is needed for. Does the department need to haul something? Does it need four-wheel drive? What will it be used for? Purchasing departments know how to purchase goods and services, but rely on the other departments to provide specific details on what to purchase. Purchasing needs details — and back-and-forth communication is inefficient. The organization needs to set clear responsibilities to determine the scope so purchasing can do its job, making the process far more seamless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Plainly, state and local governments face major hurdles when trying to get a contract out the door \u2014 it can take some governments six to eight months. With many steps, including bids, evaluations, approvals, and negotiations, the process can even stretch into the next fiscal year by the time it\u2019s finally executed. The length of time is tedious \u2014 and unnecessary. Is there a way to make the length of time shorter, or make the process more efficient?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steps to Address Payment and Procurement Inefficiencies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

A third-party assessment of your procurement and contracting processes will tell you where the inefficiencies lie \u2014 and provide recommendations on how to fix them. All you need to know is the process isn\u2019t working, and we can do the rest. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is a quick look at some of the steps of an assessment: <\/p>\n\n\n\n