Review purchasing practices

The purchase of goods and services represents a large percentage of cities’ expenditures, but many governments lack a strategic approach to procurement and contract management. Often these activities are shaped by detailed regulations and systems that do not evaluate the effectiveness, performance, or cost-benefit of governments’ purchases.

There is an opportunity, therefore, for cities to improve strategic management of their portfolio, optimize procurement processes, integrate performance considerations into procurement decisions, and expand the number and diversity of vendors.

ASSESSMENT

Some questions to guide your thinking

  • How much is the city spending on procurement?
  • Is the city measuring the purchases’ performance and cost-benefit?
  • What are the main obstacles to manage performance in the city’s purchasing approach?
  • What contracts are up for renewal and thus provide an opportunity to test new practices?
Reading

Adopting agile and collaborative procurement principles

Governing 5 minutes

This article by Harvard’s Stephen Goldsmith discusses the opportunity presented by the pandemic to improve government procurement, offering six principles to improve the procurement process to meet not just current but future needs.

  • Collaborate with neighboring jurisdictions to set standards.
  • Compensate vendors with transparency to insulate against favoritism.
  • Cut non-essential processes to improve speed, save money, and retain quality.
Reading

Contracting for equity

Government Alliance on Race and Equity (GARE) 30 minutes

This issue brief describes a common approach to improving the practice of contract equity within government, assessing current successes and challenges and offering practical strategies for helping to create equitable government purchasing practices.

Reading

Adopting active contract management

Government Performance Lab (Harvard Kennedy School) 30 minutes

When government services are privatized, cities are pushed to focus narrowly on payment processing and contract enforcement. This policy brief argues that government’s work comes during the course of the contract when real-time improvement to service delivery can drive better outcomes.

  • On its own, local government does not purposefully attempt to improve service provision.
  • Local governments often fail to collect and use data to improve delivery of contracted services.
  • Local government usually fails to collaborate effectively with providers to improve outcomes.
Reading

Embrace Outcomes-Driven Contracting for Social Services

Government Performance Lab (Harvard Kennedy School) 30 minutes

This case study discusses how Harvard’s Government Performance Lab provided technical assistance to help Chicago’s Department of Family and Support Services strategically manage $270 million in contracted services and improve outcomes for vulnerable Chicagoans.

  • Leaders centralized the RFP process and linked spending to outcomes.

Reading

Adopting agile and collaborative procurement principles

This article by Harvard’s Stephen Goldsmith discusses the opportunity presented by…

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Reading

Contracting for equity

This issue brief describes a common approach to improving the practice of contract …

Reading

Adopting active contract management

When government services are privatized, cities are pushed to focus narrowly on …

Reading

Embrace Outcomes-Driven Contracting for Social Services

This case study discusses how Harvard’s Government Performance Lab provided …