From the Director

Clifford P. McCue, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Florida Atlantic University

The Public Procurement Research Center, housed in the School of Public Administration, College of Architecture, Urban and Public Affairs at Florida Atlantic University was created in 1999 in response to a partnership agreement between FAU and the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing, Inc.

In fulfilling its mission, PPRC advances the public procurement profession in three areas: education, research and services. Immediately after its inception, PPRC launched the Journal of Public Procurement (published and copyrighted by PrAcademics Press). Soon afterwards a Faculty Research Fellowship program was created to conduct applied research identified by our colleagues at the NIGP, such as the recently released compensation study, the procurement performance measurement evaluation, a study examining state and local government procurement preferences, and a research project examining cooperative purchasing. (Faculty members from other universities are qualified for this fellowship program – please see the following if you maybe interested in conducting funded research ***** need like to funding opportunities link under applied research). Reports of these studies have been and will continue to be posted on the NIGP website as well as the PPRC website.

PPRC has also provided a number of technical assistance projects with national and international governments, particularly in procurement reform and procurement capacity building. Some of the projects include providing technical assistance to South Florida Water Management in its procurement reform, the United Nations Development Programme Inter-Agency of Procurement Service Organization in Sierra Leone’s National Government Procurement Reform project, and Canada’s Federal Government Procurement Review. It also assists its partner, the NIGP, in the LEAP (Learning and Education to Advance Procurement) project (2001-present).

To further its education mission, the PPRC has developed five graduate and five undergraduate courses in public procurement, a Certificate and an Executive Certificate in Public Procurement, and specialization in public procurement in our current BPM, MPA and Ph.D. programs. All public procurement courses are offered completely on-line through the School of Public Administration. (For information, please contact Dr. Clifford P. McCue at cmccue@fau.edu).

Finally, PPRC has cooperated with PrAcademics Press (www.pracademicspress.com) to launch a series of books in public procurement including Public Procurement: A Desk Book, Solicitation Methods, and Contract Administration.

As public procurement continues to be a neglected area of research and education, researchers and students of public procurement may have difficult time in searching for public procurement publications and information. Recognizing this problem, PPRC has provided a virtual library that provides links to various public procurement sources. This library, which will be enhanced gradually, hopefully will save researchers and students a significant amount of time. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Robert E. Lloyd, a federal government professional on a rotation at PPRC in spring 2004, who has spent a significant amount of time in creating this library, and Mr. James ARBOBBBB for updating the library this year.