ALEXANDRIA, Va., March 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Office Products Alliance (NOPA) today called upon county and municipal governments to shift from sole-source, multi-year purchasing of office products to a system in which multiple qualified companies compete every day for business. The statement was triggered by an announcement to local government customers that, effective approximately March 30, nationwide pricing of office products under the "U.S. Communities" contract would be changed across-the-board without input from local government customers. The U.S. Communities contract is supplied by Office Depot under a sole-source "piggy back" contract worth about $700 million. The current two-tiered pricing structure in those linked contracts has been under investigation in a growing number of communities around the country.

NOPA contends that more competition is essential at the local government and school district levels to ensure consistent delivery of "best value" and help government customers avoid the need for costly, time-consuming and sometimes embarrassing audits of their office product purchases. "Regrettably, such competition has been lacking and the growing number of public audit findings indicating non-compliance with contract pricing and product purchasing requirements should be a major concern," said Chris Bates, president of NOPA. "In several cases, state and local governments have been refunded public funds that their audits determined were due."

Evidence of abuses in sole-source government contracting has been mounting in recent months. Major stories on alleged serious abuses in sole-source state and local government contracts for office products were broken by Leisa Zigman, KSDK-TV, St. Louis; Allison Ross, Palm Beach Post; Bill Frogameni, South Florida Business Journal; and J. Douglas Allen-Taylor of the Berkeley Daily Planet, Berkeley, CA.

Allegations about the U.S. Communities contract began in April 2008, after David Sherwin, now a protected whistle-blower in Florida, was fired from Office Depot for voicing concerns about alleged fraudulent pricing schemes on the U.S. Communities Contract for office and school supplies. Sherwin is assisting multiple Federal, State and Local Government agencies in their investigations of Office Depot including active investigations of the Florida DMS Inspector General, the Florida Attorney General, the Missouri Attorney General, the State Auditor of North Carolina, and the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education and the General Services Administration with coordination from the U.S. Department of Justice.

"There is an alternative to 'all or nothing' sole-sourcing: multiple contract awards that include competitive small independent businesses that sell and distribute office products around the country," said Bob Chilton, NOPA chairman and president of the Supply Division of the Phillips Group in Middletown, PA. "Broad use of multiple award contracts would ensure every-day competition, expand government customer choice and service, and reduce the need for costly, time-consuming audits. Above all, multiple-award government buying strategies at the local level would boost employment at a time when we need it most."

About NOPA

The National Office Products Alliance (NOPA) is the trade Association for independent office products dealers and their trading partners. More information visit www.nopanet.org or call (800) 542-6672.

SOURCE National Office Products Alliance

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