Mission

Our mission in the Purchasing Department is to facilitate best practices and achieve economies of scale in the procurement of goods and services necessary for the effective and efficient operation of the Town of Westerly/ Westerly Public Schools and to ensure that such goods and services represents best value, quality service, and timely delivery and that all funding sources for such goods and services are expended within the regulations and guidelines mandated by the Town/Schools.

It is the responsibility of the Purchasing Department to maintain and ensure compliance with regulatory guidelines and internal control procedures, to conduct business with the highest level of internal customer service, create value and streamline processes in support of the Town/Schools initiatives, promote ethical standards, fairness, and transparency, while welcoming qualified, responsible, diverse and “green” Suppliers/ Contractors and be recognized as procurement experts and leaders within the Municipal community.

The Purchasing Department is also responsible for Insurance requirements, Bonding and overall Risk Management. We strive to better educate our internal customers of the established purchasing policies, procedures, regulations and guidelines, which will assist all departments in planning ahead bearing in mind to involve the Purchasing Department in the BEGINNING of the process and most importantly, so that we can all do our part to protect the Town/Schools from potential liability.


In the spirit of continuous improvement, the Town of Westerly and Westerly Public Schools has partnered with the Rhode Island Purchasing Group to publish our solicitations with other agencies across Rhode Island. 

We hope vendors find this system useful in expanding your visibility to bid opportunities. Visit us on the Rhode Island Purchasing Group at:
https://www.bidnetdirect.com/rhode-island/westerlyri

Values

 The Purchasing Department takes pride in applying its core values:

• Seeking, establishing and maintaining Supplier/Contractor relationships that meet our requirements while providing the best value at the lowest total cost, with minimal supply chain risks
• Improving processes to facilitate ease of procurement, drive innovation and to reduce transactional costs through continuous streamlining of the procurement processes
• Taking a lead role on all strategic procurement initiatives to take advantage of both the Town and Schools leverage.
• We work cooperatively with shared purpose and vision, and promote collaboration and a sense of harmony and community.
• We serve the best interests of the Town/Schools in our overall professional procurement practices and embrace the highest ethical standards, and with integrity, discretion, honesty and professionalism.
• It is the desire of the Town/School to purchase from Westerly Suppliers whenever possible. This can be accomplished by insuring that qualified local vendors who have goods or services available which are needed by the Town/School are included in the competitive bidding process which will precede most purchases.