Cooperative Purchasing

Kansas City Regional Purchasing Cooperative

MARC established the Kansas City Regional Purchasing Cooperative (KCRPC) to help local governments increase their purchasing power and decrease administrative costs. Local government benefits from collective buying power include:

More cooperative contracts and opportunities for volume discount savings.
New initiatives and opportunities to save money.
New opportunities through partnerships with other local governments, schools, and national purchasing cooperatives.

MARC operates the KCRPC, a partnership between MARC, the Mo-Kan Council of Public Procurement (MKCPP) and local governments. The KCRPC values professional integrity with high ethical standards which is paramount to the performance and establishment of contracts and in maintaining open, competitive and fair contracting business practices.

Cooperative Purchasing Database

Pavilion

KCRPC generates cooperative contracts for local governments and shares them through the free search tool Pavilion (formerly known as CoProcure).

Use Pavilion to find suppliers and contracts from KCRPC as well as national and regional purchasing cooperatives, states and local agencies. Pavilion provides information about suppliers and contracts from KCRPC as well as national and regional purchasing cooperatives, states, and local agencies.

All previously awarded KCRPC bids, with contracts and other relevant information, can be found in Pavilion.

Search Pavilion

Share your contracts on Pavilion

Share your agency's contracts on Pavilion to help improve the experience for our members. Visit Pavilion to learn how to share your bid solicitations, contracts, amendments and renewals.

Add your contracts

HGACBuy

KCRPC is also affiliated with the Houston-Galveston Area Council through their cooperative buying program HGACBuy. HGACBuy has been in the cooperative purchasing business for more than 30 years. Their experience and volume purchasing power can provide significant savings for local governments on major equipment purchases or services.

Search HGACBuy

HGACBuy focuses on higher-ticket, capital-intensive products and services that require detailed and technical specifications. Offerings include heavy equipment, ambulances, fire trucks, buses and mowers.

Using HGACBuy contracts under the MARC interlocal agreement (ILA 04-1443) may simplify the purchase of public works equipment, fire and emergency apparatus, communications equipment and services, and several other products that may be difficult for an individual agency to bid out.

Vendor opportunities

HGACBuy is a growing nationwide program with end-users in most states. Contracts are established directly with manufacturers, nationwide distributors and other providers at a corporate level. Local dealers in the Kansas City region may be able to receive a contract assignment if the represented manufacturer is a contract holder. In the event a contract assignment cannot be completed, local dealers are included in delivery and provide pre-delivery inspections as well as warranty and service work.

Vendors interested in participating in HGACBuy process can learn how to become a contractor.

Frequently asked questions

How does KCRPC help local governments?

Cooperative purchasing through the KCRPC helps local governments increase their effectiveness and purchasing power.

KCRPC issues bids for goods and services on behalf of multiple agencies. Using KCRPC contracts, participating local governments can save money while avoiding duplication of effort and advertising costs. KCRPC focuses on regional products/services that can be standardized across multiple agencies.

KCRPC also partners with the Houston-Galveston Area Council (HGACBuy) to provide even more cooperative contracts to local governments in the MARC region. HGACBuy focuses on higher ticket, capital-intensive products and services that require technical and detailed specifications. Using HGACBuy contracts simplifies the purchase of heavy equipment, fire apparatus, and many other products that are difficult for an individual agency to bid out.

Is my agency eligible to purchase through KCRPC?

Your agency must be a member of any chapter affiliate of NIGP-The Institute for Public Procurement or a member of MARC to use the local KCRPC contracts.

How can I purchase items without going through my own bid process?

All contracts issued by KCRPC and HGACBuy follow standard governmental purchasing practices. When you purchase under one of our contracts, you can rest assured that it was competitively bid, advertised, evaluated, and awarded. Bid documents are available if you need backup documentation for your purchases.

Where do I find more information or a list of available products?

Visit the public contract databases to search for available contracts.

Why is there an administrative fee to use these contracts?

Both KCRPC and HGACBuy are self-supporting. Administrative fees help pay for our costs in providing these services to you. Your savings will easily outweigh any fees paid, especially when you consider the staff time to develop bid specifications, advertising costs and higher product prices associated with bidding on your own. Also, purchases using the cooperative contracts can typically be made in days, rather than months.

Advisory committee

KCRPC is guided by an advisory committee made up of representatives from across the region, including the following communities:

Kansas City, Missouri
Lee's Summit, Missouri
North Kansas City, Missouri
Pleasant Hill, Missouri
Clay County, Missouri
Miami County, Kansas
Douglas County, Kansas
Johnson County, Kansas
Wyandotte County, Kansas
Independence, Missouri
Olathe, Kansas