NIGP study sheds light on government procurement practices.

• Position: News & Numbers - National Institute of Governmental Purchasing's Bid Threshold Benchmarking survey

The National Institute of Governmental Purchasing recently completed its first annual Bid Threshold Benchmarking survey. The purpose of the survey was to test the NIGP's hypothesis that the greater the confidence in the procurement process within an agency, the more authority would be delegated to the purchasing agent.

The Web-based survey, which invited 1,426 member agencies to participate, generated a 41.7 percent response rate. Most of the survey respondents represented city (39.2 percent), county (20.9 percent), or state (14.6 percent) governments.

The results of the survey showed that although a majority of agencies have similar processes, there were outlier agencies showing micro-management and macro-management characteristics. The micro-management types were those with strict spending limits and constrained processes, while the macro-management types were those where the purchasing agent has full authority with unlimited approval limits.

Geographical analysis of the data obtained by the study found that the "public" in the Central and South-Central areas of the United States is far more open to higher threshold and approval limits than other geographical locations. In other words, the Central and South-Central areas of the U.S. are more liberal in granting authority than the rest of the country. It also appears that Canadian jurisdictions tend to grant higher approval limits for procurement activities than the U.S. agencies.

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