How does our organisation ensure that its procurement process is transparent, impartial and equitable using USG funds
How does our organization ensure that its procurement process is transparent, impartial and equitable? Whenever our organization buys goods or services or hires consultants using U.S. Government (USG) funds, it should always take proper steps to ensure that the procurement process is objective and encourages fair and open competition. In addition to being a core principle underlying USG procurement regulations, competition promotes innovation, motivates vendors to perform better, drives costs down and helps curtail fraud and waste. It is, therefore, in our organization's best interest to make the process of soliciting and selecting vendors as transparent, impartial and equitable as possible. Although our organization should establish procurement policy that works for our staff and country context, this paper covers the best practices that our organization can employ to achieve open competition. These include:
• Preparing a competitive solicitation;
• Gathering and logging proposals;
• Establishing an evaluation committee;
• Reviewing and evaluating proposals;
• Documenting our selection; and
• Issuing a purchase order or contract.
Preparing a Competitive Solicitation
Once our organization has gone through the necessary pre-procurement steps to determine that an item or service is covered in our approved budget and passes the allowability test, we are ready to solicit proposals or quotations from vendors or consultants. Depending on the estimated cost and the local context, our solicitation can be sent to a targeted group, advertised in the newspaper or posted on our website or elsewhere online. However when we distribute a solicitation, we ensure that all of the information it contains is the same for all potential respondents. The best solicitations:
• Provide detailed information on exactly what we seek to buy;
• Contain clear instructions for vendors on what to include in their proposals or quotations, how to submit them
• Preparing a competitive solicitation;
• Gathering and logging proposals;
• Establishing an evaluation committee;
• Reviewing and evaluating proposals;
• Documenting our selection; and
• Issuing a purchase order or contract.
Preparing a Competitive Solicitation
Once our organization has gone through the necessary pre-procurement steps to determine that an item or service is covered in our approved budget and passes the allowability test, we are ready to solicit proposals or quotations from vendors or consultants. Depending on the estimated cost and the local context, our solicitation can be sent to a targeted group, advertised in the newspaper or posted on our website or elsewhere online. However when we distribute a solicitation, we ensure that all of the information it contains is the same for all potential respondents. The best solicitations:
• Provide detailed information on exactly what we seek to buy;
• Contain clear instructions for vendors on what to include in their proposals or quotations, how to submit them