How did the COSTARS Program get started?
The passage of the Commonwealth Procurement Code, Act 57 of 1998 (“Code”), permitted local public procurement units (LPPUs) and state-affiliated entities to engage in cooperative purchasing with the Commonwealth. Initially, the Department of General Services (DGS) limited the LPPUs’ cooperative purchasing options to certain statewide contracts. In Spring 2004, DGS developed the COSTARS Program to increase the cooperative purchasing options available to its Members. In 2004, the General Assembly passed an amendment to the Code that expanded DGS’s authority, allowing DGS to enter into contracts exclusively for the benefit of LPPUs and state-affiliated entities. DGS estimates that more than 10,000 entities within the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania are eligible to become COSTARS members. Several thousand of these have already registered with DGS as COSTARS members, and the list of registered members continues to grow.
