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Show jing the opportunity for substantial (economies if sound procedures are followed Such procedures have been Veil developed and formulated formulat-ed into widely accepted principles and practices. Business concerns with large purchasing volume usually us-ually employ purchasing agents skilled in these techniques.", r port are the following: 1. There is a lack of standardization standardiza-tion in the supplies, materials and equipment used by the several state agencies. 2. Utah has not consolidated purchases pur-chases in order to take advantage of the more favorable prices that would be possible through quan-; tity buying. 3. Little attempt has been made in the past to anticipate needs for commodities and services used by the State. 4. Except in isolated cases, the State has not used price agreement agree-ment contracts which would provide pro-vide a - number of advantages in the purchase of many types of goods and services. 5. Lack of central inspection and testing facilities has handicapped effective purchasing procedures, i 6. Market conditions are not analyzed ana-lyzed in order to determine the most opportune time to purchase the various items used by the State. 7. Commodity price records which could be a valuable aid in such market analysis work are not kept in Utah. 8. Lack of a special revolving fund for timely purchases has limited the ability of the state purchasing agent in taking 'advantage of savings sav-ings from distress sales, seasonal clearances, style and model clear-outs, clear-outs, etc. 9. Statutory provisions requiring formal bid advertising on pur chases above $1,000 have been circumvented cir-cumvented by dividing large purchases pur-chases into several small ones of less than $1,000 each. 10. Effective control over state-owned state-owned property has been made difficult if not impossible, by the absence of central inventory records rec-ords which are required by law. Despite these general criticisms report observes that several improvements im-provements have been initiated during recent months in the control con-trol of miscellaneous . expenditure vouchers and confirmation (emergency) (em-ergency) purchases. In addition, motor vehicles currently are purchased pur-chased on an advertised bid basis despite a section of Utah law which permits an exception of automobiles, automo-biles, trucks and insurance from the advertised bid requirement. Foundation analysts point out that 27,647 separate purchase orders or-ders totaling $6,313,0000 were issued is-sued by the central purchasing department during the 1957 fiscal year. Approximately 70 per cent of all purchase orders issued by the State last year were for amounts am-ounts below $100 and 17 per cent were for amounts of less than $10. j The report states that "the' state of Utah can achieve important impor-tant savings in the expenditure of public funds by establishing modern mod-ern purchasing procudures in an agency staffed by competent personnel per-sonnel trained in this technical function." It states that "purchasing "purchas-ing is a scientific function afford- Utah's Purchase System under Criticism Utah has not achieved the savings sav-ings and benefits possible under a centralized purchasing system. This was the charge leveled by Utah Foundation, the private nonprofit non-profit governmental research organization, orga-nization, in its latest study of Utah's Ut-ah's purchasing procedures. Among- the specific criticisms of the present Utah purchasing system sys-tem noted in the Foundation's re- |
