Main principles to adhere to in procurement

  • Accountability: Persons involved acknowledge and assume responsibility for actions, decisions, and their consequences.
  • Checks and balances: It is the principle of separation of power. By separating power in a process, the influence is diluted, which makes it more difficult to influence the outcome of a process. It eliminates the reason to bribe (kickback) somebody if there is no influence on the results of the process.
  • Competition: Healthy and fair competition strengthens the system and it’s actors by encouraging them to offer the best possible solution to win. Decision making should be based on evidence in order not to exclude bidders from the competition based on bias.
  • Equality and inclusiveness: Actions should be driven by providing opportunities to individuals or groups who are worst-off to improve their situation. Acknowledging the value of differences and needs of actors and ensuring that their rights are properly reflected in the process.
  • Four eyes principles: Dividing checks on more than one person makes every person responsible for their work and ensures proper execution of the task. It is a controlling mechanism also used to facilitate delegation of authority and increase transparency.
  • Impartiality and fairness: It is characterised by equity, respect and justice. It is a critical factor in decision making to find the best possible solution to a problem, while ensuring fairness. Decisions should be based on objective criteria, rather than based on bias, prejudice, or preference to one person over another for improper reasons.
  • Independence: Actors involved should operate independently, maintain their autonomy and resist any interference. It is important to check the dependencies of the involved actors and establish best possible independence.
  • Objectivity: Actions should be based on evidence and free from bias. It is closely related to impartiality and independence. Objectivity needs to be rationalised and verifiable by an independent third-party.
  • Professionalism: Actors involved should follow a set of standards and abide to ethics, code of conduct and workplace integrity.
  • Transparency: The information is context specific, easily accessible and understandable with clear and plain language.
  • Value for money: It is characterised as the most advantageous combination of cost, quality, and sustainability in relation to the requirements.