Types of Procurement
Cooperative Procurements
The State of Virginia, under statute 2.2-4304 of the Code of Virginia, allows any public body to participate in, sponsor, conduct, or administer a cooperative procurement agreement on behalf or in conjunction with one or more other public bodies, or public agencies, institutions or localities of the several states, territories of the United States, or the District of Columbia, for the purpose of combining requirements to increase efficiency or reduce administrative expenses in any acquisition of goods and services.
Augusta County School Board participates in a variety of cooperative procurements in order to reap cost savings for the tax payers. The following types of contracts are frequently utilized.
Virginia State Contracts are those contracts procured by the Virginia Department of General Services for use by all State and Local Government Agencies. For a list of available state contracts, visit Department of General Services, Division of Purchases and Supply website.
Other Localities Contracts
Other localities in the State of Virginia may solicit contracts for use by any other public body. These cooperative procurements can be located on individual agencies websites or by contacting the purchasing departments of each locality. Some reference is made on the Virginia Department of General Services website.
National Contracts
National Contracts are cooperative purchasing contracts awarded in cooperation with the Government Purchasing Alliance and available for the use of all Local Governments and School Systems as well as Augusta County Schools.
U.S. Communities Government Purchasing Alliance (U.S. Communities) is an organization with an Advisory Board of local government purchasing officials. U.S. Communities pools the purchasing power of public agencies, achieves bulk volume discounts on behalf of public agencies, competitively solicits quality products through a lead public agency and provides a purchasing forum for public agencies nationwide.
The National Joint Purchasing Alliance is a government nationwide service agency created to serve all school districts, cities, counties and other government agencies or units, including non-public schools and other partnership agencies or organizations as defined in M.S. 471.59, Minnesota's Joint Exercise of Powers Statute. Governmental Units, under this section, includes every city, county, town, school district, or other political subdivision of this or another state, any agency of this state of the United States, and includes any instrumentality of a governmental unit. Through the combined purchasing power of all of NJPA's qualifying members, needs are determined and then the alliance competitively bid products and services on the members behalf.
The Virginia Public Procurement Act (VPPA) is very specific about the types of contracts that Virginia jurisdictions may use. In general, for Augusta County to use another government's contract (including federal government contracts); the contract must have been awarded as the result of a competitive negotiation process as defined in the VPPA.
For more information and other contracts available for Augusta County Schools use, visit the following links: