Procurement should be understood and treated as a managerial discipline running through all parts of the project management rather than simply as an administrative undertaking. Procurement planning should include the development of a procurement strategy, plans and risk analysis from the early project formulation phase and address the identified challenges in electoral procurement.

Electoral procurement strategy

For each procurement project a procurement strategy must be defined, intended to ensure that all relevant aspects are covered during the process to be conducted, starting with the selection of a procurement method to asset disposal considerations. In short, a procurement strategy should involve the following issues:

• Procurement objectives, i.e. what needs to be accomplished through procurement
• Procurement methods, i.e. how the procurement will be conducted
• Requirements
• Institutional and legal framework of the elections
• Distribution of roles and responsibilities, involving all parties and stakeholders
• Risk assessment, involving primary and secondary risks, identification and management of risks in terms of reducing likelihood or reducing impact (i.e. contingency plans)
• Costs, considering not just the purchasing price, but the so-called Total Cost of Ownership
• Technical specifications (also including TORs and SOWs) and quality of materials (observation of existing standards), to be thoroughly defined from the start. They are the central part of the solicitation document, the central aspect to obtain agreement with the end user, and the main channel to describe and explain to bidders and potential suppliers what is the request
• Timelines, including production lead times and realistic delivery and distribution
• Logistics, involving all supply and logistic chain from origin of the goods to final delivery and deployment at destination, encompassing international freight, storage, packing, local distribution, etc.
• Disposal and retrieval, with special considerations to environmental regulations and special dispositions for toxic or dangerous goods, such as batteries, indelible ink with Silver Nitrate, plastic materials, etc.
• Sustainability, i.e. considering how the costs incurred can be turned to an investment for the future, by for example reusing materials, and if the systems and infrastructures created for a specific electoral project can be effectively maintained and used in the future on a continuous basis, ensuring the continuity of the solution adopted and migrating from temporary solutions to more structural and longer term approaches

Electoral Procurement Planning

A full integration of procurement planning into the programme design phase is essential for an electoral assistance project. A joint planning process between programme and operational staff, allows for the necessary understanding of procurement requirements, the market and associated risks.

During project formulation, procurement plans should be developed in line with and operationalizing the corresponding procurement strategy, including thorough discussion and accomplishment of the following:

• Identification of procurement needs and strategies
• Analysis of associated risks and costs
• Determination of constraints in the supply chain
• Assessment of implementing partners’ procurement capacity

Procurement planning also means that key objectives, timeframes, roles and responsibilities are clearly identified and operationalized in the plan. Procurement plans, like operational plans and budgets, are dynamic documents that need continuous updating through the project, in order to reflect changes and address any new challenges that may arise.

As shown in the figure, planning represents the highest savings potential of the procurement process, as the earlier we find ourselves in the process the more we can influence costs, quality and timelines.

Therefore, appropriate planning at the start of the process contributes to timely procurement and a better allocation of resources, avoiding the risks of unjustified higher costs due to late action, and without compromising established regulations or quality levels. If procurement has not been planned well in advance – and all identified risks been mitigated - it often leads to rushed processes and eventually undesired procurement outcomes, delays or non-performances.

Procurement should ensure that the solicitation of offers is timely, purchases are cost effective and materials are delivered on time as per required quality. In relation to this, procurement officers should be encouraged to develop the necessary understanding of supply markets through market research, and include such factors and their interrelations in the corresponding procurement plans.

Time, Cost and Quality, the same pillars that define “best value for money”, are crucial factors to be carefully considered when planning procurement of electoral materials as well. Each of them interrelates and influences the other two, resulting in a matrix of relations which needs to be factored in from the start, at planning stage.

First, timing is an essential factor in electoral procurement as it affects the complete project implementation, the pricing and total costs, the credibility of the electoral process, and ultimately the results. Here, timing is not only considered as delivery time but also the time needed for further inland distribution, especially when goods are consolidated from all over the world, as well as time needed for mobilization of staff and preparedness.

Major system enhancements — e.g. new IT systems and/or voter registration systems — should aim to start as early as possible in the post-election period to maximise the time for testing, procedural development, training, cultural acceptance, as well as durable and institutionalized adoption of the solution. All these will have a great impact on the sustainability of the solution.

Secondly, in relation to costs and pricing, it is worth to note that in the case of electoral processes a considerable part of the materials sourced for may be low-tech and relatively easy to produce, hence low cost “a priori”. However, the urgency and need for expedited response and extreme consolidation capacity make that for certain usual items in elections only a limited number of specialised suppliers that can respond under such circumstances exist.

When timelines are tight, the buyer becomes highly dependent on suppliers, while suppliers must deploy more resources and effort to respond, all in all potentially resulting in dramatic increases in their prices. Later Part 2 provides a complete overview on budgeting and issues related to costs.

Last but not least, quality requirements need to be factored in the procurement plan, as they determine major aspects including what is to be sourced, where it can be sourced, the appropriate methods, etc. The overall implementation of the project will highly depend on having procured the right items for the job, i.e. the right quality in broad meaning. In terms of quality issues then, procurement plans should consider for example the implications of the quality level/standards required on the range of available products/equipment and responsive suppliers; interrelations with cost and time, i.e. the higher the quality requirement the more that prices and timelines tend to increase; considerations in terms of necessary testing; considerations on alternative solutions; and quality specifications such as materials, sizes, performance, standards, in order to minimize involved risks.