(From Assembly Bill Memo A08692)
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Enactment of this legislation provides additional procurement
options to localities in ways that may expedite the procurement process
and result in cost savings. The "best value" standard for selecting
goods and services vendors, including janitorial and security contracts,
is critical to efforts to use strategic sourcing principles to modernize
the supply chain and ensure that taxpayers obtain the highest quality
goods and services at the lowest potential cost, while also ensuring
fairness to all competitors.
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Today, the federal government, approximately half of the states
and many localities have added best value selection processes to their
procurement options, in recognition of these advantages. With the
increased complexity of the goods and services that municipalities
must obtain in order to serve taxpayers, it is critical to consider
selection and evaluation criteria that measure factors other than
cost in the strictest sense.
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Taxpayers are not well served when a public procurement results
in low unit costs at the outset, but ultimately engenders cost escalations
due to factors such as inferior quality, poor reliability and difficulty
of maintenance. Best value procurement links the procurement process
directly to the municipality's performance requirements, incorporating
selection factors such as useful lifespan, quality and options and
incentives for more timely performance and/or additional services.
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Even if the initial expenditure is higher, considering the total
value over the life of the procurement may result in a better value
and long-term investment of public funds. Best value procurement also
encourages competition and, in turn, often results in better pricing,
quality and customer service. Fostering healthy competition ensures
that bidders will continue to strive for excellence in identifying
and meeting municipalities' needs, including such important goals
as the participation of small, minority and women-owned businesses,
and the development of environmentally-preferable goods and service
delivery methods. Best value procurement will provide much-needed
flexibility in obtaining important goods and services at favorable
prices, and will reduce the time to procure such goods and services.
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