Supply Chain Management for the Public Sector

Supply Chain for the Public Sector

Single Sourcing in the Public Sector – An Argument For or Against.

Notion of single sourcing and benefits

Single sourcing is a procurement option that permits a company which is the buyer to specifically choose a supplier or vendor in bypassing the competition to single sourcing. As we have different suppliers and distributors that will produce and sell similar merchandise, it is advantageous to the buyer that purchases supplies because it can choose among various companies. Therefore, a Single-source contract will allow a business owner to move from vendor to vendor if it unhappy with the results. It is also worth mentioning that single source by having one supplier, distributor or vendor for a particular merchandise reduces the amount of time spent researching products and negotiating prices with vendors. In addition, we have administrative cost that will be reduced because of less time preparing and acquiring the signed contract.

It is then fair to say that Single sourcing is a Non-Competitive Contracting , and we can notice that government agencies make sure that to only one this non-competitive procurement method use is subjected to obligations under the trade agreements and fits into a certain number of conditions such as when the product or service is required immediately due to pressing emergency and there isn't enough time to issue a competitive tender, or when the estimated expenditure is less than a determined amount (CAD 25000).

According to the Contracting Policy Notice 2007-04 - Non-Competitive Contracting, ‘All sole source contract requirements must be supported by an appropriate legal authority, either with a reference to the Government Contracts Regulations or Canada's trade legislation’. Therefore, it has been determined that Single or sole sourcing can also be used:

* If there is only one qualified company, such as a business that has developed

a patented or copyrighted product or service; or a...