Procurement of goods and services requires
- the establishment of needs,
- a request for the goods,
- obtaining a series of quotations or putting out the requirement to tender, and;
- a decision-making process based on independent assessment of the appropriate supplier.
Organisation and governments tend to have procedures and standards for procuring goods: materials, publications, furniture, computers and audiovisual equipment. These typically include a categorization of procedure based on cost, together with a steadily increasing level of authorisation and formality. They may also have a list of approved suppliers (see below). There may also be special considerations that educators want to consider and this section refers specifically to these.
Development and Affirmative Action
In some countries, there may be additional criteria designed to further the development of the country. For example, procurement may be biased in favour of local companies and organisations, or small companies, or companies with majority ownership by women or minority groups. Where there is no legislation in this regard, an election management body can set its own criteria and in this way encourage or promote the equalisation of power and wealth, within which democracy resides most easily.
General Procedures
In some cases, procurement regulations apply equally to the suppliers of goods and of standard office services.
There can be more uncertainty about the supply of professional services when less stringent criteria are used to speed up processes, or to overcome perceived limitations in the number and quality of people available.
Whether goods or services are being procured, there are standard tender (competitive bidding) arrangements that can be used to ensure that the best supplier is found at an appropriate price and without the organisation appearing to be unfair or to favour those who might have an advantage because of family or political connections.
Possible Approaches
One option that can speed up the procurement process while making it fair is to establish certain general criteria in advance and ensure that a list of potential suppliers has been created. Once the list is in place, requests to tender (bid) are submitted only to this list and choices are made from the list.
Entry into the list might require the supplier to demonstrate competence, to have passed through a set of basic requirements, which could include a site visit, submission of company information, and possibly the delivery of services previously.
If it is preferred to open the competition as widely as possible, and not exclude those who may previously have been unable to participate perhaps in emerging markets, or in countries with bars to certain people forming companies or organisations it may be possible to level the playing fields by requesting all potential suppliers to attend briefing sessions at which information is shared and questions can be asked in public.
Tenders (bids) are submitted only after this briefing, and the conditions under which tenders will be evaluated are understood by all.
For various reasons, there may be certain specialisedspecialised tasks and long-term commercial relationships that result in organisationsorganisationsorganisation establishing a list of accredited suppliers. If such a list is established, there needs to be a regular review of prices, an assessment of quality, and an opportunity for new suppliers to join the list.
The list can be opened in part by the following strategy, but there may just be a limit to how long a company can remain on the list.
Disaggregation of Goods and Services
Those responsible for procurement may need to cut up their requests into smaller chunks so that a wider range of companies and organisation can be brought on board. There may be a temptation to award a large single contract and to leave the matter of sourcing to this winner who may or may not use smaller subcontractors.
Splitting up the tender can enable smaller organisations, including non-governmental and non-profit groups, to make a bid and to be successful. Such a strategy is particularly useful in obtaining professional services from a range of different backgrounds without these people moving into unnatural consortia or partnerships. But they also provide opportunities for small businesses to gain access, especially if the disaggregation is done along functional or geographic lines.
Selection Criteria
The best price is not the only economic criterion. Even those who procure goods and services on this basis evaluate quality, delivery capacity, reliability, and so on.
Those preparing procurement on a national scale may choose to add criteria that encourage certain organisations to apply and give them as good a chance of winning the tender). Apart from straight forward affirmative action strategies, which may reward minority group or women's participation, there may be linguistic criteria, or knowledge of local conditions, or the ability to work with and draw in large numbers of volunteers. In all of these the presumption is being made that these criteria will benefit the delivery of the service and its general acceptance in society; and that large scale procurement has a duty to extend equality.
