Achieve a fair and transparent purchasing process

Why does transparency matter in government procurement? For formal bids and large projects, requesting proposals and bids is part of the government buying process. Organization leaders are held accountable to taxpayers on how and why the money was spent. Part of this accountability is that the purchasing process was a fair one, so a fair and transparent purchasing process is essential for local government agencies. bidnet direct’s e-sourcing solution provides local government agencies the tools they need to ensure each step of their purchasing process is both fair and transparent.

Fairness through outreach

For a fair and level playing field, it is important that all vendors have access to a solicitation and all accompanying documents with the same amount of time to prepare as their competition. Posting your agency’s solicitations to bidnet direct’s purchasing platform means providing access to all vendors at the same time. All solicitations, addenda, and awards are timestamped when published, protecting your agency from any claims of bias. Vendors can also receive instant notifications of matching bids and RFPs. By publishing the bids publically on the platform, bidnet direct’s participating agencies provide access to all vendors at the same time, ensuring fairness amongst all vendors.

bidnet direct's regional purchasing groups provide local government agencies with an extensive vendor pool to which the agency’s solicitations are then advertised, greatly expanding the number of vendors with access to their solicitations. This existing vendor pool also ensures that your bids are reaching registered vendors on day one.

Also necessary for a fair purchasing process is ensuring that your agency reaches an appropriate number of WMDBE vendors. Many solicitations, especially those using any sort of federal funding, require outreach to a minimum number of WMDBE vendors. At any point in time you can see who will be notified of your solicitation, and add additional WMDBE or vendors with other needed certifications by a click of a button. Extending your solicitations to reach as many vendors as possible, including the large number of WMDBE vendors registered on bidnet direct, is helpful to both your agency and all interested bidders.

Transparency in purchasing

bidnet direct makes it easy to showcase every step of the bid process to internal stakeholders such as end users, elected officials, tax payers, vendors and/ or any other interested parties. The platform’s extensive tracking and reporting capabilities provide a measurable audit trail of each step of the purchasing process. This includes options such as reporting of the number of vendors automatically notified, and all vendor’s interactions with bid documents tracked for each user. All of these reports include timestamped information and can be easily exported in various formats.

bidnet direct offers other options to increase transparency throughout the buyer's purchasing process as well. For instance, our Approval Workflow Module allows to assign roles to individuals allowing them to access, edit, or publish solicitations based on the bid type, pricing threshold, or various other configurable criteria. These options also come timestamped with the ability to view, download, and print the information.

By increasing transparency and fairness for local government agency, bidnet direct’s e-sourcing solution can streamline each step of the purchasing process for buyers and making it easier for vendors to bid.