OCEAN CITY — Ocean City’s procurement department got another nice feather in its well-adorned cap this week with a national award, becoming only the fourth in the state and first on the Eastern Shore to earn the distinction.
The procurement department, headed by manager Catrice Parsons and her staff, is responsible for working with the other department heads on making purchases and acquiring resources for projects large and small throughout the resort. During this week’s Mayor and Council work session, the procurement department was honored in recognition of earning the Outstanding Agency Accreditation Achievement Award (OA4) by the National Institute of Public Procurement.
The OA4 accreditation is awarded to agencies demonstrating excellence in accordance with the NIGP body of standards. The criteria include mission and strategies, organization, authority and responsibility, development, best practices, property management cooperative procurement and procurement technology. In layman’s terms, the town’s procurement department was recognized for its outstanding efforts to help guide the various town departments through the process of making purchases large and small for various projects and initiatives.
Ocean City’s procurement department is just the fourth in Maryland and the first on the Eastern Shore to earn the distinction. The importance of the award was not lost on Mayor Rick Meehan.
“This is a very important award,” he said. “We see all the time as we work through the procurement process just how important the work this department does as stewards of taxpayer money.”
City Manager Doug Miller also had high praise for the procurement department manager Parsons and her team, which includes procurement and supply supervisor Pam McMillan and purchasing associate Leila Milewski.
“We’re very proud of Catrice and her crew,” he said. “They exhibit a great deal of professionalism in consistently delivering better products at better prices, which makes things better for all of us.”
For her part, Parsons thanked her crew and thanked the Mayor and Council for empowering her department in the all-important decision-making process for significant purchases by the town.
“This is definitely a team effort,” she said. “This award wouldn’t be possible without this great crew. I also want to thank the Mayor and Council for trusting us with their vision. We’ve made great strides and for us to be the first on the Eastern Shore is huge in our opinion.”
