A. In addition to any authority to enter an agreement pursuant to the Interlocal Cooperation Act, any school district, including a technology school district, may either participate in, sponsor, conduct or administer a cooperative purchasing agreement for the acquisition of any commodities or services with one or more public agencies in accordance with an agreement entered into between the participants. Such cooperative purchasing may include, but is not limited to, joint or multiparty contracts between public agencies and open-ended state public procurement contracts.

B. Any local public procurement unit may either participate in, sponsor, conduct or administer a cooperative or piggybacking purchasing agreement for the acquisition of any commodities or services, including construction services, with one (1) or more public procurement units or external procurement units in accordance with an agreement entered into between the participants. Such cooperative purchasing may include, but is not limited to, joint or multiparty contracts between public procurement units and open-ended state public procurement unit contracts which are made available to local public procurement units. Purchases made in accordance with this subsection by a local public procurement unit shall be required to satisfy any procurement regulation, including The Central Purchasing Act, the Public Competitive Bidding Act, the Finance Act, related administrative rules and federal regulations that may apply due to the federal source of the funding for the anticipated purchase.

C. For purposes of this section, the following definitions apply:

1. "Local public procurement unit" shall mean, inter alia, any county, city, town, state agency, and any other subdivision of the state or public unit or agency thereof;

2. "External procurement unit" shall mean any buying organization in the United States not located in this state which, if located in this state, would qualify as a public procurement unit; and

3. "Cooperative or piggybacking purchasing agreement" shall mean an agreement between a local public procurement unit and another local public procurement unit or an external procurement unit to authorize the use of a contract procured by one of the parties to the agreement to benefit the other party to the agreement. This term shall also mean an agreement that provides access to a product or service that is lower in price than a comparable product or service that is available through the usage of a statewide, multistate or multigovernmental contract issued by the state Purchasing Division.

D. Nothing in this section shall supersede the obligation of a state agency to adhere to rules regarding statewide contracts issued by the state Purchasing Division. Neither shall any provision of this section be construed to waive the obligation of a state agency to utilize a mandatory purchasing contract as designated by the State Purchasing Director.

Added by Laws 2017, c. 252, § 1, eff. Nov. 1, 2017.