Ask anyone who is seriously involved in the public procurement process to identify the single biggest cause of public controversy and private dispute with suppliers and they will almost certainly answer in one word: specifications.
The term describes the technical and performance characteristics and other descriptions of a product or its intended use or application. They tell the suppliers what is required and identify the considerations that will be employed in deciding whether that which is supplied is acceptable.
Although specifications serve a necessary purpose, unless care is taken, inexact or overly specific specifications can result in either a great deal of wasted time or a very uncompetitive contracting process.
Therefore, the following general advice can be given with regard to the drawing up of specifications:
- Specifications should be written to provide for and encourage full competition.
- So far as possible, specifications should be standardized, both as to layout and content.
- Procedures should be established for ensuring adequate input by intended users to ensure an appropriate type and quality of items are ordered.
- Specifications should be reviewed by the purchasing department for form and content prior to publication.
- Ideally, they should also be read by a person who has had no involvement in the procurement project to that point to confirm they are comprehensible.
- Specifications should be reviewed with members of municipal staff having particular areas of expertise (e.g., legal and risk management), even if these departments are not directly concerned in the purchase.
The fundamental role of material specifications in any procurement transaction is to ensure the supply is obtained meets the functional requirements of the purchaser. In some cases, both minimum (necessary) and optimal (desired) features will be set out in the specifications, with separate price quotations being sought for each.
The specifications for a given item may cover a range of issues including: design, tolerances, environmental suitability, physical and chemical characteristics of the materials, performance and other functional requirements, method of manufacture and, particularly with respect to construction, compliance with the drawing or plan.
The specifications will often state the test methods to be employed in assessing compliance. So far as possible, the specifications should be as capable of objective assessment as possible. There are also efficiencies in standardizing specifications.
It permits purchase of items at a higher volume and narrows any inventory holding thereby facilitating stores management.
Material specifications are drafted for each particular one-of-a kind purchase. A specification can be as simple as a brand name or non-generic description of an off-the-shelf product. It can be a generic description of the requirements that a particular product will be expected to meet.
For obvious reasons, proper preparation of specifications is crucial to the tender process. The individuals best versed in the operation or utilization of the product (or service) must have considerable input into their preparation, whether or not they draft them. Highly technical specifications will often need to be prepared by an engineer or other trained professionals.
It is always good to remember that in a tender, specifications must set out in detail product description of what one is seeking to buy. Absent such a clear and comprehensive description, it is impossible to ensure the items being offered are fungible. In an RFP, the specifications are more open-ended.
The goal of an RFP is to seek alternative ways of dealing with a problem, rather than to specify how the problem must be solved.
Care is, of course, required. To illustrate the point: Both a hammer and a rock may be used to drive a nail into wood, but the one is a far safer and more precise tool than the other.
Stephen Bauld is a government procurement expert and can be reached at [email protected]. Some of his columns may contain excerpts from The Municipal Procurement Handbook published by Butterworths.
