“Procurement” refers to the acquisition of consumption or investment goods or services, from pencils, bed sheets and aspirin for hospitals, gasoline for government cars, the acquisition of car and truck fleets, equipment for schools and hospitals, machinery for force account use by government departments, other light or heavy equipment or real estate, to construction, advisory and other services (from the construction of hydroelectric power station or expressway to the hiring of consultants for engineering, financial, legal or other advisory functions).
“Procurement” for the purposes of this Handbook is defined broadly as the preparation, award and implementation/administration of contracts for goods, works and other services and thus covers not just the narrow selection of a contract partner by a purchasing body and the actual entering of a contract between the two, but the entire process from needs assessment through preparation, award and implementation/ administration of contracts for goods, works and other services such as consultant services of a technical, financial, legal or other nature.
The proposals developed in this Handbook for the purpose of cleaning up procurement processes can be applied mutatis mutandis for processes for the issuance of licenses (e.g. to operate certain public or quasi-public services), permits (building, restaurant, alcohol or residence or other permits), concessions (for the extraction of natural or other resources), and equally in the selection of purchasers of public assets in state- operated privatisation processes.
“Public procurement” refers to all contracts between a government (government department, publicly owned corporation and other types of agencies) and companies (public or private) or individuals. Finally, while the Handbook deals primarily with public procurement, the issues are very similar with regard to private-to-private contractual relationships.
Handbook “Curbing Corruption in Public Procurement”, Transparency International
