1. (a) When an agency that is subject to the Arkansas Procurement Law, Arkansas Code § 19-11-201 et seq., seeks to participate in a cooperative purchasing agreement that is administered by a public procurement unit or external procurement activity that is not subject to the Arkansas Procurement Law, it will first need to submit the cooperative purchasing agreement to the State Procurement Director for a determination as required by Arkansas Code § 19-11-256(b) and this part.
2. (b) In seeking the determination from the director, the agency must include a verifiable economic justification as to why using the cooperative purchasing agreement is more cost effective or likely to realize savings than conducting a solicitation.
3. (c) If a determination has already been made with respect to a cooperative purchasing agreement, any other public procurement unit may rely on that determination.

Codification Notes: This section was promulgated as R1:19-11-249 of the Procurement Rules prior to codification into the Code of Arkansas Rules.