Cruz: Savings through cooperative purchasing would benefit taxpayers, local vendors

(April 4, 2012 – Hagåtña)  “There is nothing more pro-business and pro-free market than consumers exercising their freedom to choose. The great economist Milton Friedman, himself, championed this idea.” The Government of Guam itself is a consumer, and should behave in the same manner. That is what Vice Speaker Benjamin J.F. Cruz had to say in response to concerns by local vendors weary of a measure to aide in cooperative purchasing.  In a letter sent Wednesday to the Guam Chamber of Commerce, Cruz explained.

“If cooperative purchasing clearly results in savings to the government, those savings could be used to procure more goods and services locally,” Cruz wrote. “Furthermore, the savings could allow the government to pay its vendors on time –a complaint which has been raised by the Chamber for many years.”

At the request of the Department of Public Health and Social Services Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, Cruz introduced a measure to allow departments and agencies to enter into joinder and mutual use contracts, among departments both on Guam and in other states for procurement purposes. Joinder or mutual use contracts are a form of cooperative purchasing.

According to DPHSS officials, a manual breast pump which could be procured for $356.80 locally could be procured through cooperative purchasing for as little as $7.95 including shipping. The savings could be used to accommodate more mothers in the program. The measure could benefit all departments and agencies and save money to the taxpayer.

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For more information please contact Carlos B. Pangelinan at 477-2520 or carlos.pangelinan@senatorbjcruz.com.