Contract and Procurement Management

Contracting is the provision of an agreement in law specifying the deliverables, terms and conditions under which goods and services may be provided from one party to another. Procurement is the process whereby goods and services are provided from an outside agency to a ‘project performing’ agency. Most projects involve some form of procurement which is underpinned by formal contracts, memorandums of understanding, exchanges of correspondence or informal internal agreements between business units within the same organisation. The most common perceptions of procurement are the arrangements surrounding major deliverables in a project delivery phase. A project manager is responsible for managing, on behalf of their parent organisation, the procurement of deliverable(s) to meet a project’s objectives. Procurement requires passing responsibility for the achievement of certain project objectives from a project team to a third party. The purpose of seeking information from prospective tenderers is to reduce uncertainty and/or risk to both the client and contractor.