The National Office Products Alliance (NOPA) today called upon the County of San Diego, CA and local governments around the country to shift from single-source, multi-year purchasing of office products to a multiple-award contracting approach. In addition, procurement agenciesâ™ requests for proposals (RFPs) should be structured to be inclusive of small local independent office products dealers and dealer consortia (âœteaming arrangementsâ) â" not just the large Big Box companies in the industry.
âœThese proposed steps will ensure ongoing competition among qualified top bidders and consistent delivery of best value to all government customers,â according to NOPA President Chris Bates.
The NOPA statement was triggered by San Diego Countyâ™s responses this week to questions regarding its current RFP (No. 4708) for office and school supplies and multi-purpose paper products. Of critical concern, this RFP specifically excludes consideration of bids from firms with under $25 million in annual sales and requires each bidder to provide customer references for three contracts individually valued at over $5 million.
âœThis RFP approach discriminates against small businesses in California and throughout the country,â said Bates. âœNOPA would be pleased to work with state and local governments and major purchasing alliances to help them develop size-neutral model RFPs for office products that would help mitigate this problem,â he added.
âœGiven our Nationâ™s major economic struggles, San Diegoâ™s exclusion of small business participation in this procurement process is incomprehensible. The anticipated single-award contract will harm small businesses throughout our industry,â Bates noted.
The current office and school supplies/paper contract is utilized by more than 700 public agencies in San Diego and other parts of the country. The contract has an annual value of approximately $50 million. Local and state government agencies and many educational institutions 'piggy backâ™ on the San Diego contract, which is made available to them by the National Intergovernmental Purchasing Alliance Company (National IPA).