Procurement, Bidding, and Evaluation

Reports that in recent years the switch from monopolistic sole sourcing from the private sector to approved book lists and decentralized financing, selection, and ordering by schools has removed the need for competitive bulk procurements of teaching and learning materials (TLM) organized by Ministries of Education (MOE), which often proved problematic in the past. Anglophone Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) has seen a shift towards decentralized textbook supply systems based on MOE-approved lists and school-based choice from school per capita purchasing budgets, though the shift has proved less pronounced in Francophone Africa. All procurement bids should include minimum physical production specifications and price as part of the evaluation criteria, because failure to do this leads to shorter book life and higher costs. Good examples of bid documentation and evaluation methodologies, instruments and criteria—compulsory, qualitative, and price—for different types of procurement remain readily available, but good procurement requires good, professional supervision.