Nassau County Executive Laura Curran has announced a new reform to advance and promote economic development for all businesses across Nassau County.
The reform comes as a new ordinance and will eliminate the $125 annual registration fee customarily imposed on all vendors that use the County online procurement system.
“As part of my review of the Nassau County Procurement System, we found the annual vendor registration fee negatively impacted competition among vendors in bidding on County Contracts,” said County Executive Curran. “We have also heard directly from businesses that since the vendor registration fee was imposed, it has dramatically decreased vendor participation. We hear their concerns, and our goal is to promote vendor participation and competition within the County.”
Traditionally, the annual vendor registration fee must be paid regardless of whether a vendor was awarded any County work. This deterred many vendors from bidding on County contracts.
Curran’s amendment closes the gap in the ordinance by imposing that the administrative services charge expands to cover contracts and purchase orders that are competitively solicited and awarded by the Commissioner of Shared Services. This cost-neutral practice is an expansion of a 2006 ordinance that charged a processing fee for personal contracts.
The amendment is a logical extension of the existing provision and is projected to offset the loss of revenue caused by the elimination of the annual vendor registration fee.
“Our goal is to advance and promote economic development, and fair competition, for all businesses,” said County Executive Curran.
