By national standards, Baltimore's system of buying goods and services falls woefully short. It's operating with outdated policies and procedures that frustrate agencies, bidders and vendors. The Dixon administration has proposed changes in the system that would help reform this sluggish process - and the City Council shouldn't stand in the way.

City finance officials have proposed revising the practice of requiring purchases between $5,000 and $25,000 to be approved by the city's Board of Estimates. The legislation is a proposed amendment to the City Charter, which requires approval by the five-member board for anything over $5,000. It would give the mayor and City Council the power to set those limits. The council, which is set to review the proposed charter amendment at a hearing on Thursday, must approve the measure for it to appear on the September ballot.

That's a change that needs to be made. When the National Institute of Governmental Purchasing conducted a management review of the purchasing system in 2001, the audit found that the present system of requiring board approval for any contract over $5,000 "creates a slow and burdensome process."

The review also characterized it as "cumbersome and considered an obstacle by city agencies," lacking in technology, and too lengthy, which results in agencies looking "for ways to get around the process." With City Hall spending $221 million a year to keep agencies stocked, equipped and operating efficiently, the latter shouldn't be the norm. Accountability depends on sound practices and people following them.

The auditors recommended revising the informal bid process so that buyers have the authority to approve purchases that cost less than the formal bid amount of $25,000. That is basically the substance of the proposed charter amendment, which conforms to similar policies in Baltimore, Howard, Anne Arundel and Montgomery counties and the state of Maryland; the informal bid amount was last changed in 1986.

The requirement to advertise formal bids twice but in a variety of media, including the Internet, should remain in order to ensure that the public is notified.

A new purchasing system that takes full advantage of online technology is in place. It's hard to believe in this era that it took so long, but this agency has been in the dark ages for some time, and any effort to make it more responsive and less bureaucratic will benefit the citizens of Baltimore.