Practical notes from procurement files.
Short guides, checklists and regulatory summaries written for the people who have to prepare the documents and defend the decisions.
FEATURED
The five findings that appear in almost every procurement audit
Incomplete evaluation records, criteria applied inconsistently, undated correspondence, unsupported variations and missing delivery evidence. Each one is avoidable at the document-preparation stage, and each one is easier to fix before an audit than after.
Procurement compliance
Procurement and audit staff
11 min read
LATEST
Guides, checklists and updates.
Technical specifications
Brand-neutral specifications: what the rule actually requires
Naming a brand is not always prohibited, and avoiding brand names does not automatically make a specification compliant. What matters is whether the requirement is measurable and whether it unnecessarily restricts competition.
Development partner procurement
Prior review and no-objection: sequencing a donor-funded procurement
The single most common cause of schedule slippage on donor-funded packages is not the procurement itself — it is discovering the no-objection requirement after the step it applies to.
Contract administration
Variations that hold: documenting a change order properly
A variation is where a well-run contract most often becomes an audit finding. The order itself is rarely the problem; the missing justification and approval trail is.
Procurement planning
What a realistic Annual Procurement Plan looks like
Most Annual Procurement Plans are compliant documents that nobody uses. A plan becomes useful when its dates survive contact with the approval chain.
Cost estimation
Cost estimates that hold up at tender opening
When every bid comes in far above the estimate, the problem is usually the estimate — and the consequence is a re-tender that costs more time than the original estimate saved.
RESOURCES
Downloadable resources.
Procurement planning checklist
A one-page check of everything an Annual Procurement Plan needs before it goes for approval.
Bid evaluation report structure
The section-by-section structure of an evaluation report that survives review.
Contract management checklist
Kickoff, milestone, payment, variation and closeout checks in one sheet.
Technical specification review sheet
Twelve questions to ask before a specification is issued with a tender.
Company profile
Full company profile of ASK Procurement Solutions Ltd.
Capability statement
Service lines, sectors and the combined experience of the team.
Training brochure
Programme outlines, durations and the current training calendar.
Regulatory updates by email
A short note when public procurement documentation or development-partner guidelines change. No marketing, no more than one email a month.
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