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Contract Administration Basics

A contract is a written agreement, enforceable by law, between a procuring entity and a supplier, contractor or service provider for the provision of goods, works or services.

Contract administration involves all activities related to the monitoring of suppliers, contractors and service providers’ performance in the fulfillment of their contractual obligations, and to ensure appropriate actions are taken to promptly remedy any deficiencies observed in contract implementation, scope or terms and conditions.

Where does it start?

Preparation for contract administration begins with planning, which should begin during the bidding and selection process. This planning includes the nomination of contract administrators, a strategy for undertaking periodic performance review, the timeframe for certifying performance and acceptance of contract deliverables in order to avoid payment delays, and an understanding of the contract terms and conditions to ensure effective oversight.

Although the actual planning begins during the selection process, contract administration actually starts upon the signing of the contract, which is the point at which the parties to the contract are bound by its terms and conditions. [Read more…] about Contract Administration Basics

Pre-Bid Meetings: What, Why, Who, When, Where, How?

Jorge Lynch 2 Comments

What are pre-bid meetings?

Pre-bid meetings are gatherings scheduled after an invitation for bids or request for proposals is advertised. They are called pre-bid meetings because they are pertinent to procurement of goods, non-consultant services and works. When they are scheduled for consulting services, they are called pre-proposal meetings. These meetings, also called conferences, are scheduled during the preparation of the solicitation documents (invitation for bids or request for proposals) and the date, time and venue are mentioned in these documents so that all prospective bidders and consultants can become aware of them.

What is the purpose of pre-bid meetings?

The objective of pre-bid meetings is to explain the details of the solicitation documents to interested bidders. Prospective bidders are permitted to request clarifications on the invitation for bids or request for proposals by a stipulated date, and the pre-bid meeting is held within that period. [Read more…] about Pre-Bid Meetings: What, Why, Who, When, Where, How?

8 Causes of Delays in the Public Procurement Process and How to Avoid Them

Jorge Lynch 16 Comments

The public procurement process is often delayed for different reasons. Such delays may damage the Procuring Entity’s reputation and are a waste of scarce public resources; additionally, contracts are not awarded on time and this results in poor delivery of public goods and services.

The following are 8 common causes of delay in the public procurement process and what you can do to avoid them: impotenzastop.it

1. Delay in Preparing Technical Specifications, Scope of Work or Terms of Reference

Technical specifications, scope of work, and terms of reference are documents that describe what is needed, and should be clear enough to avoid confusing suppliers, contractors, service providers or the evaluation panel.

They are also needed to prepare the solicitation (bidding/tender) documents. And if they are not completed ahead of schedule, the procurement process is delayed before it even starts.

The reason for delay is usually due to lack of expertise in preparing these documents, or not realizing the extent of the information and research that may be needed to complete them. [Read more…] about 8 Causes of Delays in the Public Procurement Process and How to Avoid Them

Importance of Using Checklists in Public Procurement

Jorge Lynch 4 Comments

The procurement process is repetitive, and although most steps are fairly easy to remember, missing or forgetting small things in the process can lead to misinterpretation of your actions as a procurement practitioner and public official.

Especially when you are a beginner, you need to find a way to remember the things that need to be done so that you can begin to gain a certain degree of independence and require reduced supervision over time.

Given that procurement is a step by step process, it is better to use checklists rather than rely on your memory to ensure all the steps are covered. This is especially important because in public procurement any mistake could be misinterpreted as intentional action on your part to favor a particular bidder, and this is something you want to avoid at all cost because not only will it put your credibility in question, but it will also affect the public’s perception of the integrity of the procuring entity and the Government.

Developing and using checklists can be a great help to increase your understanding of the procurement process and to lessen mistakes you could make if you forget certain important steps. Also, by quickly learning the basic elements of the procurement process and how to successfully carry them out, you will acquire a better understanding and be more confident of your ability to learn, and this may open doors to opportunities for enhancing your career as a procurement practitioner.

Types of public procurement checklists

As a beginner, you may wonder how you will be able to develop checklists and on what. But you can develop checklists as you learn about the procurement process and verify your notes with whoever is teaching you the process. You can also consult the procurement manuals or guidelines at your disposal.

You can develop a checklist to help you remember the basic steps of the procurement and contract administration process. This would be a general checklist briefly covering the following:

Need identification
Specification development
Market research
Procurement planning and scheduling
Requesting and receiving offers cheska-lekarna.com
Evaluation offers
Contract award
Managing the contract

Additionally, it would be immensely beneficial if you would develop a detailed checklist of each of the steps in the procurement and contract administration process. As you are learning each, you should write down all the steps used to identify a procurement need, steps for developing a specification, steps for preparing a procurement plan, steps for preparing solicitation documents, and so on. By doing this, you will have written down all the details related to the entire procurement process.

Besides the above, I’ve found checklist particularly useful for ensuring procurement records are well maintained and as a reminder of any record that may be missing from the files. For an overview of creating a checklist for record keeping, go here.

Developing a checklist can involve a considerable amount of work, but the time invested is well worth it because you’ll then have a tool that can be used for quite some time with minor modifications for improvement or changes in the procurement rules.

You should make an effort to prepare checklists on whatever you are learning and to verify them with whoever is training and mentoring you. Better yet, you should encourage your trainer to use checklists when teaching the procurement process and share them with you for future use. But rather than rely solely on checklists developed by others, you should make an effort to develop them yourself as part of the learning process and they will not only help you to better understand the procurement process but to remember the essential steps to effective public procurement management.

Have you used checklists before? What has been your experience using checklists? Leave a comment.

Checklist of Potential Risks in the Procurement Process

Jorge Lynch 1 Comment

The procurement and contract administration process are prone to risks. There are risks in determining need and planning procurements, developing specifications, selecting the appropriate procurement methods, preparing solicitation documents and calling for offers, evaluation and selection of firms and individuals, negotiating the contract, and contract administration.

Procurement management is about solving problems and managing risks. Customers need supplies and services to solve immediate and future needs. They usually have little understanding of procurement and unrealistic expectations about the procurement process. Procurement planning and strategy development are important to reduce risk in the procurement process. A comprehensive understanding of the procurement process, principles and guidelines is also important to finding appropriate solutions and minimizing risks.

The following is a link to a comprehensive checklist of potential risks in the procurement process:

http://www.purchasing.tas.gov.au/Documents/Checklist-of-Potential-Risks

You can download the checklist in Word and pdf formats.

Courtesy of: NSW Department of Public Works and Services https://cheska-lekarna.com

Evaluation Process

Jorge Lynch 14 Comments

Although an initial review of the offers received is done at the bid opening event, a preliminary examination of the offers is done at the beginning of the evaluation process to determine, the responsiveness of the offers to the solicitation documents. After that, a detailed examination is done only of the offers that complied with (were responsive to) the requirements of the solicitation documents.

In the case of solicitations for goods and works procurement, after confirming compliance with the technical requirements, a comparison of the proposed price is made, and the offer that is technically compliant, and with the lowest evaluated bid price, is the one that is recommended for contract award.

When evaluating consultants, individuals or firms, the technical qualifications are also initially assessed. For individual consultant selection, once the technical qualifications are determined, the consultant obtaining the highest technical score above the minimum technical qualifying mark is requested to submit a financial offer and to negotiate a contract libido-portugal.com/.

In the case of consulting firms, depending on the procurement method, the selection could be similar to that of individual consultants (as indicated above) or the final selection could be determined by scoring and assigning weights to both the technical and financial evaluation. The highest ranked consultant resulting from the sum of the combined technical and financial scores would be recommended for invitation to negotiate the contract.

The result of the bid or proposal evaluation process is dependent on the procurement method and the procedures for determining the selected supplier, contractor or service provider that will be recommended for negotiations and/or contract award.

Share your thoughts on the bid evaluation process. Leave a comment.