Commodities & Services Index
NIGP SEARCH
The following “search engine” enables users to identify numeric codes that best represent selected commodities and services. These codes are maintained by the National Institute of Government Purchasing (NIGP). Howard County Government and many other Government buying agencies use these NIGP codes to aid in defining requirements and associating vendors with the commodities and services that they offer.
All 5-digit NIGP codes are organized by category (first 3 digits) and subcategory (last 2 digits). For example, HVAC will mostly appear under the category code “031”. Specific commodities related to HVAC will be represented by the last 2 digits.
The Office of Purchasing recommends the following steps to conduct a search.
For those searching for an NIGP code if the commodity or service is known, it is suggested that you enter some key words under “NIGP Description” (such as “heating”, “cables”, or “environmental consulting”), and then click “Submit”.
From the listed results, you will often see many codes with the first 3 digits the same. For example, if you search for “heating”, the first 3 digits that will appear most is “031”, which is the overall “HVAC” category.
You may now get ALL items listed under 031, by entering “031” into the cell “NIGP Code”, and click “Submit”. The listed results will now show ALL descriptions under the 031 HVAC category.
You may also enter BOTH a description AND an NIGP code (or portion of an NIGP code).
Click HERE to access the NIGP code search page.
For a Listing of the NIGP codes (pdf) click on NIGP Commodities and Services Codes