Procurement Process

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

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.

Five Questions on Delays in the Procurement Process

Jorge Lynch 6 Comments

1. What are delays in the procurement process?

Delays in the public procurement process are any constraint that prevents procurement events from taking place in accordance with the procurement plan and schedule.

2. What causes delays in the procurement process?

Some common causes of delays in the procurement process are:

Failure to properly plan all procurement events and to use the appropriate procurement method.

Requesting entity fails to submit procurement requests on time consistent with the procurement plan and schedule.

Technical specifications, scope of work or terms of reference prepared later than scheduled.

Procuring Entity receives incomplete technical specifications, scope of work or terms of reference.

Evaluation panel not formed in time to begin the evaluation process as scheduled.

Evaluation Panel taking more time than allotted to evaluate bids or proposals.

Protracted contract negotiations.

Reviewing and approving authority taking more time that allotted to review and comment on documents sent for approval.

3. Why is it important to avoid delays in the procurement process?

Avoiding delays in the procurement process not only saves time and money, it also permits the timely award of contracts. A delayed contract award could cause a chain reaction of delays on other dependent procurements. This is especially important in project procurement management because it could delay the completion of the project.

4. Who is responsible for avoiding delays in the procurement process?

All stakeholders: the procuring entity, evaluation panel members, approving authority, requesting entity, etc., involved in the bidding, evaluation and selection phase are responsible for making every effort to avoid delays in the procurement process. No single department can do this. It has to be a collaborative effort.

5. What can be done to minimize delays in the procurement process?

To minimize delays in the procurement process it’s important to ensure:

A realistic determination is made of the availability of a market to satisfy the need.

The appropriate procurement method is assigned to the requirement because this is important for estimating the procurement lead-time.

The need for external assistance to prepare the technical specifications, scope of work or terms of reference of the requirement has been considered.

An evaluation panel with the proper technical skills is identified, selected and approved early enough and is available to begin the evaluation process on schedule.

The approving authority will be available and is committed to reviewing and approving procurement documents within an agreed timeframe.

What are your thoughts on delays in the public procurement process?

Guaranteeing Quality of Goods in the Bid Evaluation Process

Jorge Lynch 1 Comment

Is it possible to guarantee quality based on documentation received in response to an invitation for bids?

While preparing to brief an evaluation panel, the chair reserved for me was a bit wobbly so I decided not to sit on it. Comments were made about the quality of the chair because it had been purchased a year ago, and there had been problems with the furniture from a particular supplier.

One of my colleagues raised an interesting question: Is it possible to guarantee quality goods during the bid evaluation process based only on documentation received from bidders?

The truth is, quality cannot be determined solely based on documents received in response to an invitation for bids. And the buyer has the right to verify information submitted by bidders at any staged in the bid evaluation process.

The evaluation and selection process is designed to review bids using stipulated evaluation criteria to determine to what extent bids received meet the technical requirements stipulated in the bidding documents cz-lekarna.com.

The evaluation panel concludes the evaluation process with a recommendation. If the recommendation is to award a contract and it is approved, a contract is signed with the recommended firm.

Goods may be inspected prior to shipment and also during the receiving process. These inspections are for the purpose of confirming quality and detecting any defects or damage to the goods. If any defects or damage is detected, a remedy can be sought based on the terms and conditions of the contract.

Also, after goods have been inspected and received, any defects covered under the warranty agreed in the contract would necessarily be the responsibility of the supplier with which the contract was signed, and in some cases the manufacturer if clearly stipulated in the contract.

Warranties and guaranties are mechanisms available in procurement to assure quality or to seek remedy. They are established for a period of time after receiving the goods, and have stipulated conditions under which either can be put to use if the product is found defective for reasons stipulated in contract.

So, although it’s not possible to determine quality solely based on the content of bids received in response to invitation for bids, appropriate mechanisms must be put in place to insure that the quality is verified prior to contract award, during the receiving process and after contract award.

How about you? What are your thoughts on this? Leave a comment.