Purchasing with Precision

We’ve come a long way in the 8 years and counting since you elected me to serve as your County Executive, which most notably includes digging Rockland out of a $138 million deficit to a multi-million-dollar surplus. Despite everything we’ve accomplished, this administration is always working to improve the lives of everyone who calls beautiful Rockland home.

This month I am proud to announce a new initiative which underscores that pledge and promise to the people of Rockland. Our Purchasing Division is now enrolling in a new supplier evaluation tool called Procurated. Comparable to Yelp and Trip Advisor, Procurated is a ratings and review site of suppliers for public procurement agencies.

Prior to this tool, the only information our Purchasing Division would receive to learn about vendors or contractors were based on references submitted by the vendors themselves, which we know can be deceptive and subjective since companies will cherry-pick and submit only positive references. This translates to making multimillion dollar decisions and contracts with little to no information about the true performance record of the supplier.

Now thanks to this new site, Rockland County will have access to a real-time database of reviews and ratings of contractors and vendors, enabling us to make more precise purchasing decisions for the people we serve.

With more than 40,000 reviews of 10,000 suppliers nationwide from verified public employees at our fingertips, the Purchasing Division and County of Rockland will be able to find the best suppliers for projects moving forward saving both time and money for taxpayers, while maximizing the quality of suppliers we secure.

With their work now under the microscope, this will additionally pressure vendors who are under-performing to strengthen and improve their track record, hopefully leading to a broader pool of qualified vendors for municipalities to choose from.

The best part about this new ratings website is it is completely free for government agencies and will have a huge impact on our purchasing moving forward as it encompasses everything Rockland secures for the County from office supplies and vehicles, bullets to boats, even the horses in mounted unit of the Rockland County Sheriff’s Office.

With record-high inflation and soaring gas prices straining costs across the board, we can’t afford any mistakes with taxpayer money and now thanks to our Purchasing Division we won’t be. I applaud this department for being incredibly proactive in improving one of the top functions we rely on in day-to-day operations.

Enhancing efficiencies for the people we serve is what it truly means to be a public servant. We welcome anyone interested in learning more about this tool to check out their website: Procurated | Supplier Ratings and Reviews for the Public Sector