Authorizing the Committee on Law and Government to investigate how the City through its procurement process can save taxpayer dollars by joint purchasing with other governmental bodies and agencies.

WHEREAS, In September of 2003 Council passed Bill #030342 and Resolution #030359, which were introduced by Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, that allowed for a ballot question that asked if the City of Philadelphia could enter into cooperative purchasing agreements; and

WHEREAS, In November of 2003, the citizens of Philadelphia overwhelmingly approved this useful tool for government savings; and

WHEREAS,

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n light of the national economic crisis, the City of Philadelphia, like other cities, is experiencing a large budget deficit; and

WHEREAS,

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n an effort to track the potential savings for the city and address potential revenue shortfalls, Philadelphia should take aggressive steps to examine ways in which departments can work more efficiently with less resources; and

WHEREAS, The role of the Procurement Department is to act as the central purchasing and materials management agency for the City of Philadelphia. Their goal is to acquire services, supplies and equipment at the lowest price that meets the needs of the city while ensuring a fair and open process during a competitive bidding process; and

WHEREAS, While one central database handles all the open procurement needs from the City in order to facilitate inter departmental purchasing, there is no requirement that City departments collaborate with the state or other governmental bodies or agencies in order to realize the best costs and savings; and

WHEREAS, Without departments looking at state or other governmental bodies or agencies’ contracts during the purchasing process, the City is left vulnerable to missing out on potential savings through the use of joint purchasing; and

WHEREAS, Sometimes the City has participated in joint purchasing which has helped the city realize cost savings in areas such as UPS services, vehicle purchases, computer equipment and software purchases, but these cost savings are not regularly tracked or measured by the Procurement Department, now therefore

BE IT RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA, That it hereby authorizes the Committee on Law and Government to investigate how the City through its procurement process can save taxpayer dollars by joint purchasing with other governmental bodies and agencies.

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