Procurement policy: The missing element in financial management education

This study emphasizes the need to include purchasing, or procurement, as a topic in the graduate-level public administration curriculum. It notes the absence of purchasing research in mainstream public administration journals and in leading public financial management textbooks. The study also reports the results of a survey mailed to the purchasing directors of the 46 largest U.S. counties outside Florida. The survey was designed to familiarize academians and practitioners with various administrative, legal, structural, and procedural dimensions of county procurement policies. Areas of greatest deficiency are those dealing with protest and appeals procedures and contract monitoring, and to a lesser extent procedures for declaring an emergency, entering into intergovernmental purchasing agreements, and contracting with minority businesses. The most comprehensively-covered elements are those delineating award authority, small purchase authority, methods of soliciting bids, definitions of emergencies and professional services, and procedures for contracting professional services.