Office Depot's Issues Lead to Proposed Changes in Contracts

(MoneyWatch)  The National Office Products Alliance (NOPA) released a press release asking cities and counties to re-look at how they buy office supplies. Citing the issues with Office Depot that we wrote about earlier this month the group recommends going to multi-source more open contracts. The Alliance feels that more competition will prevent abuses such as Office Depot's alleged overcharging as well as provide better prices and cost savings to the governments. One saving would be the ability to limit the amount of audits required as open competition should lead to better prices and more upfront justification. NOPA was also responding to an announcement by Office Depot that they would raise their prices effective March 30th. As the stories and investigations continue to mount there will be growing pressure to move away form the Office Depot contract.