Baltimore City Council President Wants Procurement Review

Bernard C. “Jack” Young, president of Baltimore’s city council, reportedly has asked the council to review the city’s centralized CitiBuy procurement system, which was used to toward $277 million in payments last year.

Baltimore uses CitiBuy to acquire “everything from toilet paper to truck parts,” according to the Baltimore Business Journal, which said CitiBuy lists 31 open bids ranging from court-reporting services to dumpster purchases.

Young requested a hearing to make sure the system is working efficiently, according to the Journal, citing a Young spokesman. Some 14,000 vendors used the system last year, with projections that more than 16,000 vendors will use it by fiscal 2016, the news source reports.

Young, who wants the city’s finance department and bureau of purchases to share information on CitiBuy’s operations, also wants to learn more about controls that ensure CitiBuy purchases supplies at the best prices available, the Journal report said.