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Public Procurement

s_rai213168 — 2025-03-03 22:19:42 UTC

We didnot have class when module one was opened. However, I did self-study of module one. The module 1 talked about Public Procurement. Public procurement is the process by which government or public sector organizations buy goods, services, or works from private companies and the money come from various type of taxes like income tax, business tax and fees for licenses.Morever, the module also had course map, assessments and expectations for the class. The course map talked about Midterm, SILEx and project. The assessment included the evaluation into 4 categories and they were quizzes, assignments, midterm case analysis and silex report along with its presentation.

Public Agencies And Cooperative Purchasing

s_rai213168 — 2025-03-07 04:41:51 UTC

In module 2, the professor did review of module one I learned about types of public agencies like municipal, healthcare, education. All these 3 factors had sub-divisions except for military.

We also learned about cooperative purchasing which is the main topic for module 2. Relecting on it, organizations form partnership to procure good and services to pool together needs. It is done especially in public sector to help each other out economically.Piggybacking seems like an easy way for organizations to take advantage of existing contracts without much effort. Pooled purchasing and consortium purchasing are great for getting better deals through bulk buying, but they require careful coordination and alignment of needs. Formal cooperative purchasing might offer the best structure, but it can also be the most complex and time-consuming. However, there are various challenges for cooperative purchasing like schdeuling work between agencies, commitment between both parties and having mutual understanding and support.

Furthermore, we did in-class presentation in London Transit by forming group of 4.

Broader Public Sector Directive and Trade Agreements

s_rai213168 — 2025-03-10 22:10:55 UTC

On module 3, there was a brief introduction about SILEX project and it mentioned that we will be working with local agency to learn about their issue and come up with solutions. It is done in group where we will be researching and making a report as well as presenting.

While learning about Public Sector, I gained a knowledge that Hospitals and schools are part of Broader Public Sector (BPS) that receives funding from government but are not part of government. BPS Directive is a set of rules that governs transparency for BPS. It is also responsible at each stage during procurement process, receiving public funds and open to fairness. Trade Agreements basically means exchanging of good and serives from one to another country/ies. Benefits of it is, it will strengthen ties with trading partners, reduce tarrifs and increase economic growth and one of the public procurement is Canadian Free Trade Agreement who does it. Trade Agreements includes annual information and reporting, procurement practices, and bid disputes to challenge award to a bid.

Risk Management and Case Analysis Review

s_rai213168 — 2025-03-10 23:38:36 UTC

In module 4, we learned about Risk Management helps to identify and prevent it in future/present any type of loss in the organization. It depends on the corporation whether to avoid, transfer or manage the risk. Corporate Risk Management parts emphasizes on leadership vision and commitment, continual training, public promotion, priority by all corporate staff and effective management of contracts and contractors. Regarding Assessment, one of the team member were to submit group contract if SILEX Report and Presentation.

Public Procurement and The Law

s_rai213168 — 2025-03-11 03:01:10 UTC

In module 5, the learning was focused on the law and legal factors in public procurement sector. Common law is the law made by panel of judges and many decisions today refer to previous decisions. The law of Agency allows an employee to act on behalf of their employer to make agreements with third parties like suppliers. And its relationship is governed by an agreement that determines conditions, limitations, rights and obligations. Contract law is a legally binding agreement between a public agency and a supplier, requiring intention, consideration, offer and acceptance, legal purpose and parties with legal capacity. Contract A is formed when bids are irrevocable, require security, restrict changes post-deadline, include a fixed contract for signing and have non-negoatiable pricing. Bidders have the right to full disclosure of work details, evaluation criteria, terms and conditions while agencies must act fairly and in good faith. Bidding documents must specify evaluation criteria, the role of pricing, negotiation possiblities, award splitting, partial rewards, handling of a single bid and the presence ofa privilege clause.

We were advised to do individual case analysis individually which was the part of midterm case analysis.

Group Case Analysis

s_rai213168 — 2025-03-12 20:57:12 UTC

This module involved working on our group case analysis during class time so we did not had any lectures that day. Everyone in the class collaborated with their group members to finalize their summary of findings in class. And also by this module, we should have already submitted our individual analyses which I mentioned in module 5. As it was a graded assignment, everyone were to be in the class and professor woud give us feedback on it.

Competitive Bidding

s_rai213168 — 2025-03-12 22:25:04 UTC

Before jumping into the chapter, our professor did quick review on procurement and the law, goals and integrity of Public Procurement. The integrity in public procurement are open, fair and transparent. Competitive Bidding is a method to procure goods/services that an agecny wants for their business. It helps to acquire fair and transparent competition which helps in auditable survey. The types of competitive bidding are:

Request for Information (RFI): A company sends out RFI to gather information about potential supplier. Hence, there is not any deal of pricing and binding.
Request for Expression of Interest (RFEI): This is used to see if vendors are interested in project. It is likely to be a formal invitation inviting suppliers to submit the proposal.
Request for Prequalification (RFPQ): It is the stage where business get response from the interested vendor and then evaluated agains prequalification criteria.
Request for Quotation (RFQ): It is a formal invitationfor business to send an RFQ to suppliers asking for pricing details to compare costs.
Request for Tender (RFT): An RFT is a formal request for suppliers to submit detailed bids to complete a specific project and has strict guidelines.
Request for Proposals (RFP): It is a formal request for companies to submit a response to agency's specification.
Non- Competitive Procurement means procuring goods only from Sole source capable of meeting specific requirements, Single sourcing from one vendor, Using P-card purchasing means only purchasing from company issued credit card, having Unsolicited proposals meaning receiving proposal from supplier without actively seeking it and Negotating terms and prices with a supplier to reach mutual benefit to both parties. Moreover, The tools in competitive bidding are closing time and date, sealed submissions, two-envelope, conflict of interest declaration, qualifications, agency reserved rights, securities and disqualification.

Document Building- Specifications and Scopes of Work

s_rai213168 — 2025-03-13 15:29:52 UTC

The module 8 is second competitive bidding module which is extensive for gaining the knowledge about specification development for goods/services. At first the module talks about what are we purchasing like products, services or construction. Specifications mean characteristics of goods ans services of/for those specific items. The types of specifications includes design, performance, brand names, industry accepted standards, market grade, qualified, regulatory, and propriety products which is essential for meeting the requirements for public procurement. Scope of work also referred as Statement of work is used in projects to describe service-related needs when business technical specifications are not available interchangeably. Some of the things to consider while reviewing specifications are use, user/s, potential and preferred suppliers, budget, cost, technology, scope of work (SOW) and environmental concerns. There was group exercise and my group worked with internal customer to create specification of work for the requisition. We asked questions to choose the right competitive document and ensure successful purchase. Then, we shared our work with proferrosor and every other group on ou turn and received feedback.

Document Building - Evaluatuation Criteria and Supplier Selection

s_rai213168 — 2025-04-08 20:40:52 UTC

The module 9 focused on evaluation criteria and supplier selection which is also the last module on competitive bidding. This module talks about a supplier is qualified if they meet the identified needs which is done by responding to competitive bidding document. Whereas, unqualified bidders are those who claims to provide services but misrepresents their data. When price just not justify then agency will create evaluation criteria to meet the criteria which will be minimum and compulsory for specific requirements. For evaluating the responses, there are 3-5 members to evaluate and those judges cannot do research on the companies, talk to bidders, cannot talk to other evaluation team members until the responses are evaluated in the meeting. In evaluation meeting, team members share their thoughts on the submission, ask question and help choose the best option if possible. After the evaluation meeting, more conversation may happen to get extra information or make a deal and procurement handles this until the contract is given and everything is finished properly.

Ethics and Fraud

s_rai213168 — 2025-04-10 15:11:26 UTC

The module 10 talks about ethics in public procurement which means moral principles that governs behaviour of the person in business. Unethical behaviour in business means using goods/services of business for personal use, tricking vendors and accepting gifts from vendors. A Conflict of interest arises when an individuals relationship, personal involvement or actions in an official capacity lead to personal gain. If a Conflict of Interest is possible, ASK: is it right? could it harm me or organization? Would others see it as wrong? would I be embarrassed? is there better option? Branded merchandise as gift is often discouraged to receive as gift as it could play favourties in the market where some agencies might be allowed to receive low dollar value gifts. A Corporate Scandal involves unethical, illegal or questionable actions by individuals within a company often leading to public exposure. Fraud in procurement means gaining unfair advantage and inflict injury in some way. Willful Fraud is a criminal crime where the individual get serious penalties and punishment and is not bound by statue of limitations. Patronage means using their power to give support and protection to favours. Bid-Rigging takes place when two or more parties of comapny agree that they will collaborate without disclosing that they are working together. They might do activities like not submitting a bid, withdrawing a bid and submitting a bid that the companies have arrived at by agreement.

SILEX Project Preparation & Finalization

s_rai213168 — 2025-04-13 21:43:07 UTC

In module 11, we worked on finalizing our SILEX project at class. We started in-depth research and ending with a presentation slides and personal reflection. I really enjoyed working with my teammates, everyone were participative and looking forward for the presentation.

SILEX Presentation and Research Report

s_rai213168 — 2025-04-13 22:11:41 UTC

The module 12 was presentation week which was on March 24, 2025. Every group presented well. We were last but not least group. For me, I really enjoyed my presentation, was well-prepeared and looking forward for it. My teammates too did very good job, they presented on their topic smoothly. Overall, I liked my team presentation and we did our best.

Contract and Supplier Management

s_rai213168 — 2025-04-13 22:59:44 UTC

The module 13 talks about execution of the contract and how the relationship with vendor gets managed to build good relationship. There are 4 types of contract and thet are purchase order, blanket purchase order, service level agreements and master service agreements. Supplier management is done by measuring activities, procurement collects information, determine baseline measurement and then compare vendor's performance against acceptable activity. Supplier performance techniques can be formal and informal where formal technique includes feedback from customers and discussion with directive yearly; informal includes categorical, weighted point and cost-based evaluations. In public procurement, supplier development can include guiding vendor to give knowledge about on how to work with agency to complete bid requests and providing feedback on bid submissions. Altough there are challenges to build relationship with vendor public they can still manage to construct it by maintaining good communicaton with vendors, internal customers and also being fair, open and transparent. Supplier Debrief is a meeting that occurs after project had been awarded. It is intended to guide the supplier create better delivery in the future. However, debrief are not required for projects that are awarded based on price like RFQ AND RFT and not a process to question the result. Debrief are part of open, fair and transparent process led by procurement contact. It can alsp include internal client and can be face to face, over the phone or video call.

Review/Catch up

s_rai213168 — 2025-04-13 23:25:29 UTC

One of the main things I took away from this course is how important it is to have a clear and organizedway of handling supply chain and procurement especially in procurement. The module als oshow how important is to folloe legal rules and act accordingly. It als otouched on how working together in cooprative purchasing and managing risks can really help make the whole process more efficient. I also learned to stay open to change. Another nig thing I learned was ow vital ti is to prevent fraud and keep ethical standards. This helps us to protect trust and fair in public buying. In the end, I realized that when a public supply chain is run well, it makes a big difference in how well public organizations can meet the needs of the people they serve.