The Administration Department continued to concentrate on developing and managing the Authority's purchasing, storage systems and information services.

The purchasing system was improved with a revised policy and several electronic system enhancements that have improved order tracking and payment releases to vendors. Last year, the Authority produced 7,839 purchase orders totaling $30,234,455 in procurements and payments. The new document-imaging program processed and archived all Authority purchases. The program identifies all aspects of the procurement from its original requisition to the final payment. Contracts used to acquire the purchase agreements, specification sheets, detail sheets, warranties and maintenance are all optically available in the enhanced purchasing system.

Continuing its effort toward shared purchasing, the Authority used New York State or Erie County contracts for more than 1,700 purchases in 2001. This cost-effective, bulk-purchasing process has resulted in substantial savings for the Authority.

The Administration Department also managed the Authority's physical inventory of $1.3 million of materials and supplies. This was a 6.17 percent increase from the previous year and was due to the Authority's expanding service area.

Information Services serves as the primary administrative support for all Authority operations. Last year, the department completed 24,276 work orders. It also manages all Authority file and retrieval processes, office supplies, secretarial services, new service applications, mail and general office operations.