Government contracting and procurement: a critical process for both the public and private sectors

The costs and benefits of government purchases of goods and services from businesses are examined from the perspective of both public and private sector officials. Generally, governments see more benefits than costs, often because of fiscal stress. Businesses, especially newer, smaller firms are more likely to see more costs than benefits. The article concludes with ten projections for changes in public procurement systems by the year 2000. These are: (1) expansion of current vendor pools; (2) intergovernmental adoption of standardized forms and procedures for getting and staying on government vendor lists; (3) mainstreaming of purchasing into the government financial management decision-making loop; (4) more rigorous training requirements for government purchasing personnel; (5) greater use of public-private task forces to reform procurement policies and practices; (6) greater use of surveys inside and outside government to identify specific problem areas and structure reforms; (7) expansion of the auditing and contract monitoring section of purchasing departments; (8) extension of bidding/contract monitoring and evaluation requirements and procedures to subcontractors of prime government contractors; (9) greater efforts to include quality dimensions in cost estimates; and (10) more tension and litigation over “protectionism” in public procurement.