I was reviewing minutes from the September 10 meeting of the Board of Madison County Commissioners and saw that they had approved the Cooperative Purchasing Memorandum of Understanding with the Montana Department of Administration. It reminded me that in Montana, local governments, school districts, tribal governments other “local procurement units” are permitted by law to take advantage of the cost savings realized by volume purchases made by the State of Montana. These cooperative purchasers can buy using the state’s term contracts, order vehicles through the requisition time schedule, and participate in the ordering of certain commodities needed by the Montana Department of Transportation. As of this writing, there are 258 local procurement units that have Cooperative Purchasing MOUs with the State Procurement Bureau.
If you’re trying to sell your goods or services to cities, towns, counties, educational institutions, public agencies & authorities, health institutions, tribal governments, or other local procurement units in Montana, make sure you know if they have an MOU with the State Procurement Bureau, and if they are using that procurement vehicle to buy the goods or services that you sell.
For more information about Montana’s Cooperative Purchasing Program, go to https://emacs.mt.gov/cooperativepurchasing.