The National Institute of Governmental Purchasing defines cooperative purchasing as “the combining of requirements of two or more political entities in order to obtain the benefits of volume purchases and/or reduction in administrative expenses.”1
Cooperative purchasing requires individual purchasing units in multiple government environments to have a willingness to look beyond individual preferences with regard to detailed specifications, preferred product brand names, etc.2 A variety of arrangements can be used whereby two or more units purchase from the same supplier using a single IFB/RFP as the basis of the contract documents or cooperative pricing agreements.3 Some possible objectives of cooperative purchasing are:
1National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, The Dictionary of Purchasing Terms, 8.
2National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Advanced Public Procurement, (Herndon, VA: 2001) 16-17.
3ibid, 16.