Procurement process isn’t difficult

This is not rocket science.

When a government office needs something — say a new computer or copier or police car or excavator — the person heading up that office has some basic steps to follow.

First, do your homework. Explore what equipment options are out there, looking at several different vendors.

Then, develop some specifications. These should be specific enough to guarantee that the purchased equipment will do the job but broad enough to make sure no potential vendors are excluded.

Then, circulate those specifications with several potential vendors.

When at least two or three price quotes have been collected, study the quotes, making sure they meet the specifications, and prepare a recommendation based upon a judgment as to which one is the lowest price and the best deal.

Do all that, and you’ll be in a position to get approval from Jay County Commissioners to be named purchasing agent.

As we said, it’s not rocket science.

But it’s a lesson that’s been hard for county commissioners to communicate. In fact, commissioners are just about a half a step away from establishing a formal procurement policy that will spell out the rules in writing.

For more than a year, commissioners have been telling department heads and elected officials that they want to make sure multiple price quotes are secured and that comparisons will be made on an “apples-to-apples” basis.

Some folks have been doing that all along. Others caught on quickly. And still others have been slow to get the message.

To their credit, the commissioners have stood firm, insisting that additional price quotes be gathered and questioning wide variances in specifications.

But that means simple purchases — a new copier or a new computer for example — take multiple meetings before approval can be granted. It’s a waste of time for everybody involved.

And if the few simple steps listed above are followed, it can be avoided. — J.R.