Procedure for the procurement of consulting service - DOH

DOH CUSTOMIZED PROCUREMENT MANUAL VOLUME 4 2010
PREPARING FOR THE PROCUREMENT OF
CONSULTING SERVICES
Volume I of this Manual contains an extensive discussion of Procurement Planning as a general concern
for all kinds of government procurement, while this Section mainly focuses on concerns that are particular
to the procurement of consulting services. As such, it is advisable for the reader to refer to the pertinent
discussions in Volume I before and during the reading of this Section.
Preparing for procurement basically involves three activities: procurement planning, preparation of the
bidding documents, and the conduct of the pre-procurement conference. Procurement planning entails
ensuring that plans for procurement are linked to budgets, preparing the Project Procurement Management
Plan and consolidating all PPMPs into the Annual Procurement Plan. Formulating the PPMP involves
identifying the procurement project requirements, writing the Terms of Reference, determining the
Approved Budget for the Contract, identifying the schedule of milestone activities, and determining the
method of procurement.
The PPMP is then transformed into the bidding documents, which ought to contain all the information a
prospective bidder needs to prepare its bid. Therefore, in preparing the bidding documents, one has to
ensure that these accurately and comprehensively reflect the main elements of the PPMP. One also has to
make sure that the documents are of the kind, and form prescribed by the revised IRR and these Manuals.
The pre-procurement conference is the forum where all officials of the procuring entity involved in the
project meet to discuss all aspects of the said project and to determine the readiness of the procuring entity
to undertake the procurement. The conference focuses on the TOR, the ABC, the appropriateness and
applicability of the recommended method of procurement, and the availability of budget, among others.
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