41-2632. Cooperative purchasing authorized; definitions

A. Any public procurement unit may either participate in, sponsor, conduct or administer a cooperative purchasing agreement for the procurement of any materials, services, professional services, construction or construction services with one or more public procurement units or external procurement activities in accordance with an agreement entered into between the participants. The cooperative purchasing may include joint or multiparty contracts between public procurement units and open-ended public procurement unit contracts that shall be available to local public procurement units. A nonprofit corporation may enter into an agreement pursuant to this section if one or more of the parties involved is a public procurement unit. An agreement entered into as provided in this article is exempt from section 11-952, subsection D. Parties under a cooperative purchasing agreement may:

1. Sponsor, conduct or administer a cooperative agreement for the procurement or disposal of any materials, services or construction.

2. Cooperatively use materials or services.

3. Commonly use or share warehousing facilities, capital equipment and other facilities.

4. Provide personnel, except that the requesting public procurement unit shall pay the public procurement unit providing the personnel the direct and indirect cost of providing the personnel, in accordance with the agreement.

5. On request, make available to other public procurement units informational, technical or other services or software that may assist in improving the efficiency or economy of procurement. The public procurement unit furnishing the informational, technical or other services or software has the right to request reimbursement for the reasonable and necessary costs of providing these services or software.

6. Pursuant to the rules for cooperative purchasing adopted by the director, purchase materials, services, professional services, construction or construction services under the terms of a contract between a vendor and a public procurement unit or an external procurement activity without complying with the requirements of sections 41-2533, 41-2534 and 41-2535.

B. The school facilities board or school districts, or both, may enter into an agreement with a public procurement unit pursuant to this section for the purpose of procuring materials and services needed to correct deficiencies in school facilities.

C. The activities described in this section do not limit what parties may do under a cooperative purchasing agreement.

D. A nonprofit corporation operating as a public procurement unit under this section, on request of the auditor general, shall provide to the auditor general all documentation concerning any cooperative purchasing transaction the public procurement unit administers under this section.

E. A nonprofit corporation operating as a public procurement unit under this section shall comply with all procurement laws applicable to the public procurement unit participating in a cooperative purchasing transaction that the nonprofit corporation administers.

F. This section does not abrogate the responsibility of each public procurement unit to ensure compliance with procurement laws that apply to the particular public procurement, notwithstanding the fact that the cooperative purchase is administered by a nonprofit corporation operating under this section.

G. Any public procurement unit conducting or administering a cooperative purchasing agreement for the procurement of construction services or professional services shall comply with the requirements of section 34-603 or 41-2578.

H. For the purposes of this section:

1. " Construction services" has the same meaning prescribed in section 41-2503.

2. " Professional services" has the same meaning prescribed in section 41-2578.