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Cronin Award for Procurement Excellence
NASPO Recognizes Innovation in State Government Procurement George Cronin Awards for Procurement Excellence recognizes Oregon and Idaho

The National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO) honored three innovative state procurement programs with the George Cronin Award for Procurement Excellence at its Annual Conference on September 13 in Austin, Texas. Submissions were judged against criteria including innovation, transferability, service improvement, uniqueness and originality, and a demonstrated cost-reduction.

The state of Oregon had a banner year, receiving both the Gold and Bronze awards. The Gold-winning program was its Nationwide Lodging Services: State of Oregon/WSCA Lodging Program. This cooperative program created a nationwide database of individual hotel properties willing to honor at or below GSA per-diem rates for state employees while traveling. The nationwide database is searchable and participants can report the total hotel spend, which can help in aggregating the cost of hotel stays, saving the state even more money down the road.

The Silver Award was presented to Idaho for its Best Value Performance Information Procurement System. Idaho teamed with Arizona State University's Performance Based Research Studies Group in an effort to improve the success rate and decrease the risks associated with service contracts. Since implementation, the state has applied these "Best Value" practices to a variety of programs internally, has promoted their plan to at least two other states and has assisted Arizona State in transforming what started as a construction-focused process to a mainstream public procurement sector solution.

Oregon's Bronze winner was the state's Disaster Response Procurement program. Taking Lessons learned from a 2007 flooding disaster in the coastal region, the procurement team initiated a disaster preparedness workgroup that developed comprehensive guidelines and manuals, added functionality to its Web site, developed special procurement authority determinations, defined and mapped emergency processes and more. These measures not only save the state money for disaster-related purchases, they also improve the state's overall preparedness when another disaster occurs. 

"I am always proud of the innovative and creative programs that my colleagues across the country continually produce to create greater savings and more efficiencies for their states or territories," said Deb Damore, Chief Procurement Officer for the state of Vermont and chair of this year's NASPO Cronin Awards Committee. "This year was no exception. However, looking across the board at our criteria of innovation, transferability, cost reduction and service improvement, the committee determined that these three programs really stood out."

The George Cronin Award for Procurement Excellence is recognized as a premier achievement for innovative public procurement and pays homage to a founder and the first president of NASPO, George J. Cronin. Since 1985, the Cronin Awards have recognized ground-breaking state procurement programs and promoted the sharing of ideas between states.

The National Association of State Procurement Officials is a non-profit association dedicated to strengthening the procurement community through education, research, and communication. It is made up of the directors of the central purchasing offices in each of the 50 states, the District of Columbia and the territories of the United States. NASPO is an organization through which the member purchasing officials provide leadership in professional public purchasing, improve the quality of purchasing and procurement, exchange information and cooperate to attain greater efficiency and economy. 

For more information on NASPO's Cronin Awards, email Lisa Thompson, NASPO Programs & Education Coordinator, or call her at 859.514.9154. To view all of the 2011 Cronin submissions, click here.

AMR Management Services, Inc. (AMR) provides NASPO with full management services. For more information about AMR visit www.AMRms.com.  


Past Cronin Award Winners:

2011

2010


2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

2003

1985-2002

  • 2002: Alaska Long Distance Learning
  • 2001: Idaho Purchasing Modernization Initiative
  • 2000: Utah Vehicle Purchase Program
  • 1999: Ohio Natural Gas Purchasing Program
  • 1998: Missouri PC Prime Vendor Contract
  • 1997: Wisconsin Advantis Credit Bureau Access Program
  • 1996: North Carolina Micro-Computer & Peripherals Contract as Developed and Managed on the Internet
  • 1995: none selected
  • 1994: none selected
  • 1993: Minnesota Document management system
  • 1992: Oregon Vendor information program
  • 1991: Arizona Contract for abatement of underground storage tanks
  • 1990: New York Contract for electronic ballasts
  • 1989: Missouri Pharmacy service contract for correctional facilities
  • 1988: Kansas Freight management systems
  • 1987: West Virginia Natural gas contract
  • 1986: Alaska Video - "A Better Way To Buy"
  • 1985: Missouri Competitive bidding of residential rehabilitation services