Collaborative Procurement

OVERVIEW

The initiative on Collaborative Procurement, led under the umbrella of the HLCM Procurement Network, contains a set of actions that the HLCM undertook in responding to Quadrennial comprehensive policy review of operational activities for development of the United Nations system (67/226, 2012; par. 156).

First, the participating organizations agreed on a process of harmonization of procurement manuals. Then, on such an agreed basis, they adopted a “collaboration clause” which allows organizations to mutually accept their procurement review processes.

This means that all these organizations can now accept the outcome of another agency’s procurement process with reference to standard clauses in the relevant internal guidelines, to avoid duplication of internal controls across agencies. Almost all organizations no longer require secondary review of other agencies procurement review process.

Especially at the country level, this can mean a major reduction of staff, cost and time in procurement activities. This is a strong example of a concept often referred to as “mutual recognition of business processes”.

On these basis, the participating organizations agreed on:

1. Waiving the second review: this actions enabled the ability to accept the procurement process of another organization without additional review;

2. Sharing LTAs: this actions enabled the ability to use common LTAs without having to negotiate individual contracts with vendors;

3. Not restricting cooperation: no restriction to cooperation in guidelines