Get the best, exclusive purchasing in the country

NJPA is a public corporation or agency serving as a municipal contracting agency for government and education agencies. NJPA serves member agencies under the legislative authority established and granted by Minnesota Statute 123A.21 (see specific statutory references on pages 4-5). All NJPA employees are public employees whom are required to pay into Public Employment Retirement Association (PERA) through payroll deduction. NJPA employees have the same employment status as employees of NJPA government and education member agencies.

Among other areas of serving members, NJPA creates national cooperative contract purchasing solutions on behalf of its member agencies which include all government, education and non-profit agencies nationwide and in Canada. These cooperative contract opportunities offer both time and money savings for their users by consolidating the efforts of numerous individually prepared solicitations to one national, cooperatively shared process. This process leverages the aggregation of volume from members nationwide.

Eligible members include any unit of government, education (K-12 and higher ed) or non-profit agencies nationwide.

There is no-cost, no-obligation or liability to join or participate in the NJPA contract purchasing program. There are no minimum contract purchasing requirements or commitments for members use of NJPA contracts.

Yes, in most states and local jurisdictions, though it is the responsibility of individual members to make the determination. All NJPA contracts have been competitively solicited nationally, reviewed, evaluated by committee and recommended to the NJPA Board of Directors for award in accordance with Minnesota public purchasing and contracting rules, guidelines and regulations applicable to NJPA. Each solicitation is issued on behalf of NJPA and current and potential NJPA members nationwide. Each RFP advises all responders that NJPA most desires and invites a vendor whom can sell and service participating member agencies in all fifty states and, optionally, provinces and territories of Canada. All RFP respondents understand that these contracts will be under consideration for use by government, education and non-profit member agencies throughout the United States.

NJPA prefers to award contracts at the manufacturer level when possible. Contract awards to manufacturers are made on behalf of that manufacturer’s dealer network through the established relationship between manufacturer and authorized dealers. Likewise, contract awards made to a re-seller are made on behalf of the re-seller’s manufacturers, again through the established relationship between the re-seller and their manufacturers. In many cases, some products or equipment are only available through re-sellers. Whichever is the case, NJPA members have a single source of responsibility in the awarded contractor and that awarded contractor takes responsibility for all third party sub-contractors used in the acquiring and delivering of products and services to be delivered. As a result of the contracting reputation NJPA has earned, NJPA is able to award contracts to quality vendors that members can trust.