purchased by the county, 14 maintain their own laboratories and conduct various kinds of tests; 17 employ the service of commercial testing laboratories; 88 utilize the facilities of college or university laboratories, mostly for tests and inspection of materials and equipment used in road construction; and 43 employ their State highway laboratories mostly for tests and inspection of materials and equipment used in road construction.

It would seem, from the results obtained from the survey, that too few counties are taking advantage of the testing facilities of taxsupported colleges or universities for the purpose of determining whether commodities purchased comply with the requirements relative to quality and grades as specified in the contracts or with the specifications on which contracts are based.

It is conceivable that a cooperative arrangement could be effected whereby county agencies would utilize the facilities of State-owned institutions to conduct certain kinds of analyses and tests. In all probability, a number of State-owned colleges and universities do maintain equipment for testing, but the counties are not making use of available services. There is no question that the use of commodity acceptance testing will have a tendency to lessen the disadvantages of accepting second-grade or off-grade materials and at the same time will result in savings which may be utilized by the counties in rendering other services to the taxpayers.

Results of the Survey by the National Bureau of Standards.

The results of the survey show that with certain exceptions, county purchasing methods leave much to be desired. Nothing can be gained from the rule-of-thumb method which prevails in a number of counties. On the other hand, much may be accomplished if counties would revise their present purchasing methods and place them on a scientific basis. An ideal county purchasing department is one which has put into effect a centralized system of purchasing whereby all purchases for county needs are handled by the purchasing department in charge of a competent purchasing agent; the maintenance of a library of current standards and specifications covering various classes of commodities; and one which owns or may utilize proper laboratory facilities for the testing of deliveries to determine their compliance with the requirements of the standards or specifications on which contracts are based.

It is evident that there are limits to the feasibility and efficiency of a completely centralized purchasing system in small or sparsely settled counties. For them it might well be an expensive luxury, except in the purchase of the more commonly used materials. The solution may lie in county consolidation, or in cooperative purchasing, whereby two or more adjacent counties would pool their requirements and purchase on joint contracts.

Survey by the Governmental Committee of the National Association of Purchasing Agents.

In addition to the survey made by the National Bureau of Standards, the National Association of Purchasing Agents' Governmental Committee sent out a questionnaire to each county clerk in the United States, to obtain information as to county purchasing laws, practices, and administrative organizations. The replies received from this

survey formed a basis for a study entitled, "County Purchasing," Joseph W. Nicholson, city purchasing agent, Milwaukee, Wis.

by

A county model law was proposed by the National Association of Purchasing Agents in 1931, and in the pamphlet "County Purchasing," this model law is reproduced with the recommended changes and exceptions suggested by Mr. Nicholson.

Section 12 of this model law deals with the establishment of a standardization committee for each county.

There shall be in each county a standardization committee which shall be composed of The members of this committee shall serve without

additional compensation.

It shall be the duty of the standardization committee to classify the requirements of the county government for supplies, materials, and equipment; to adopt as standards the smallest number of qualities, sizes, and varieties of such supplies, material, and equipment consistent with the successful operation of the county government; and to prepare, adopt, promulgate, and enforce written specifications describing such standards.

In the preparation and revision of any such standard specification, the standardization committee shall seek the advice, assistance, and cooperation of the county departments and agencies concerned, to ascertain their precise requirements. Each specification adopted for any commodity shall, insofar as possible, satisfy the requirements of the majority of the county departments and agencies which use the same. After its adoption, each standard specification shall, until revised or rescinded, apply alike in terms and effect to every future purchase and contract for the commodity described in such specification; provided, however, that the county purchasing agent, with the approval of the county board, may exempt any county department or agency from use of the commodity described in such standard specification.

"County Purchasing," by Jos. W. Nicholson, 61 pp., The National Association of Pur chasing Agents, 11 Park Place, New York City, 1940.

"The personnel of this committee should be adapted to the structure of the county gov ernment of each State. It should include a member of, or representative of the county board, the county highway engineer or his representative, a representative of the county's penal and charitable institutions, a representative of the county school system if school supplies are to be purchased through the county purchasing office, and the county purchasing agent who should be chairman and should be present at all meetings."

MUNICIPAL PURCHASING METHODS AND PROCEDURES

In

While much has been written with regard to municipal purchasing problems and principles, especially the theoretical advantages of centralized purchasing, it is only very recently that there has been available any considerable amount of factual material concerning actual purchasing practices in American municipalities. fact, the first comprehensive study along this line seems to have been that which was made in 1939 by the Governmental Group of the National Association of Purchasing Agents and the International City Managers' Association. For the purposes of that study a comprehensive questionnaire was circulated among all cities of over 30.000 population in the United States. The findings were presented in an article published in the "Municipal Year Book of 1940." 10

Growth of Centralized Purchasing.

Among other interesting facts brought to light by this survey is that centralized purchasing has had an extremely rapid and constant growth in American cities during the past 20 years. Of 118 cities. with a centralized purchasing procedure replying to the questionnaire, 38.2 percent adopted centralized purchasing during the last decade, 8 cities being added to the list in 1939. Moreover, all but 23.6 percent of these cities adopted centralized purchasing within the past 20 years. The details concerning the rate of growth of centralized purchasing in such cities are given in table 13.

TABLE 13.-Growth of centralized purchasing in 118 cities of over 30,000 population

Extent of Centralized Purchasing.

11

Of the 194 cities replying to the questionnaire, 125, or 64 percent, reported that procurement of materials and supplies was centralized,

The Municipal Year Book 1940," pp. 194-201, International City Managers' Associa tion, Chicago, Ill., 1940. The National Association of Purchasing Agents, and the Internaonal City Managers' Association have generously made available for the present purPoses the executed questionnaires and the other data collected in that survey.

"The article contained in the "Municipal Year Book for 1940," cited above, shows a fgure of 123. However, several questionnaires were returned following the publication of the "Year Book," and the figure here given is based on these supplemental returns.

as against only 69 cities reporting that purchasing was not centered in one office. As would be expected, the extent of the use of centralized purchasing has a direct relationship to the size of municipality; all of the very largest cities reported its use, with the percentage of municipalities reporting centralized purchasing systems decreasing constantly with each smaller population group. While the extent to which centralized purchasing is practiced in the 116 cities of over 30,000 population that did not reply to the questionnaire (see table 14), is little more than a matter of conjecture; it may be presumed that a large proportion do not have this system, but in any event information from the whole could hardly be expected to change the picture in this particular. Table 14 shows the extent of centralized purchasing at the close of 1939 in cities of over 30,000 so far as can be determined from the replies to the questionnaire.

TABLE 14.-Extent of centralized purchasing in cities over 30,000, as of Dec. 1, 1939

Questionnaire Relating to Use of Standards.

In order to gain some idea concerning the extent to which American municipalities make use of written specifications and scientific testing of commodities in municipal buying, in May 1940 a special questionnaire was prepared, for the purpose of this monograph, and sent by the American Municipal Association to 100 municipalities of various population groups and representng all sections of the country. Specifically, this questionnaire requested information as to (1) whether purchases are made on written specifications or by trade-name or brand; (2) how standards are formulated; (3) the extent to which use is made of specifications prepared by national technical organizations and the Federal Government; (4) the arrangements which have been made for testing samples of commodities both when submitted with bids and after delivery; (5) the exent to which testing laboratories are maintained; and (6) the use made of the facilities of college or university testing laboratories as well as those of private or commercial institutions. Table 15 shows the coverage of this questionnaire and the percentage of returns received, and upon which returns the present study is largely based.

TABLE 15.-Coverage and returns of questionnaire relating to use of standards by municipalities

It is necessary to note at least two important qualifications in the accompanying data. In the first place, the number of municipalities from which information has been secured, though well distributed both by population groups and by sections of the country, is entirely too small to warrant the assumption that the picture presented is representative or typical of the whole of each of these respective population groups. Furthermore, most of the municipalities covered in the accompanying tabulations practice centralized purchasing at least to a limited extent, and it may be assumed that these municipalities, on the whole, make a greater use of written specifications and laboratory tests in connection with the buying of supplies and equipment than do those municipalities which have not adopted centralized purchasing. In spite of these limitations, however, the replies received to the questionnaire reveal many interesting facts and give at least some indication of the extent to which American municipalities are resorting to scientific methods in purchasing the commodities required for their needs.

Use of Written Specifications in Municipal Purchasing.

Approximately 34 percent of the municipalities replying to the questionnaire report the use of written specifications either exclusively or to a very large extent in purchasing municipal supplies. As was to be expected, the cities in the larger population groups make a far greater use of written specifications than do the smaller communities; however, it is interesting to note that a large percentage of the municipalities in the very small population groups makes extensive use of written specifications, a few of those with populations ranging from 5,000 to 10,000 reporting that practically all of the commodities purchased are bought on written specifications. Some 44 percent of the municipalities in all the population groups covered by this survey report that purchases are made on written specifications and by tradename or brands, but many indicate that whenever trade-names are given in advertisements for bids or on requisitions it is always understood "that competitive articles are not barred." It seems particularly significant that 19 percent of all the municipalities covered in this survey report that major commodities purchased are bought "largely on written specification," while 15 percent of these municipalities report that such purchases are made on written specifications exclu