Para 2.5 — CONSULT_MANUAL

2.6 Need assessment, Formulation of Terms of Reference, and Procurement Planning - Risks and Mitigations

Risk Mitigation 1. Need is either artificially created or exaggerated, with the intention to channel benefits to an individual or an organisation. For example, demand is created for a good that is not needed simply to benefit the company’s owner. Keep records and involve stakeholders: Records of decision making, and data used should be kept. Involve procurement and finance functions at this stage also. End user and stakeholder consultations should be part of the process. 2. Delays in Assessment of Need and generation of Purchase Proposal for Procurement may lead to shortcut procurement procedures that dilutes transparency and prevent achievement of value for money. It may also lead to delays in delivery of services. Need assessment should be done sufficiently in advance of the time when services are required. In case or urgent requirements, the urgency certificate should be approved by authority empowered to grant administrative approval for the indent, recording justification – why the need could not be formulated earlier.

2. Procuring Entities may lay down a schedule of powers for administrative and budgetary approval of procurement proposals for services. Before granting such approvals, it should be certified that funds in the budget are available and liability for this procurement proposal is noted against the total available budget.

2.5 Final Administrative and Budgetary Approvals 1. The scope of the work described in the ToR shall be compatible with the available budget. The most important step is to determine whether all tasks required to achieve the desired output have been included in the ToR. The next step is to determine whether adequate budget has been allocated to implement the ToR as designed. Since the budget may be fixed or limited, a series of iterations may be required before a final, acceptable ToR is formulated. CA's (Competent Authority) approval may be taken for the ToR before proceeding ahead. After administrative approval provision may be made in the Budget or if that is not feasible, additional confirmation at the time of seeking Administrative approval may be taken from the CA for inclusion in the Revised Estimate stage of Budget. Procurement may be initiated only after such budgetary provisions/ confirmations.

Manual for Procurement of Consultancy Services, Second Edition, 2025

2.7 Developing a Procurement Plan

Risk Mitigation 3. The estimate of the costs may be inadequate. This may lead to inadequate response from the bidders and may delay finalisation of procurement. It may also adversely affect the quality of supplies. Estimates of procurement should be prepared with due diligence, keeping in view inflation, technology changes, profit margins etc. 4. Need Description/ Specifications/ Activity Schedule are disproportionate to the need identified or made to tilt in favour one or a group of vendor

(s) or contractor

(s) to artificially restrict competition. Use a formal market discovery tool: Prebid conference and/ or well publicised EoI may be used for discovery of the market. Otherwise, encourage and invite comments on the technical and commercial conditions in the tender document or hold pre-bid 5. Asymmetric dissemination of vital conference. need information: Dialogue for determining solutions available in the market is held only with selected prospective bidders, giving them undue advantage in preparing for the bidding. Selected prospective bidders get access to inside information not disclosed or disclosed late to others.