An Evaluation of Unops' Procurement Policy

3/5/2013

AN EVALUTION OF UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR PROJECTS PROCUREMENT POLICY BY: Mpho E. Pitse |

|TERM PAPER|

AN EVALUATON OF UNITED NATIONS OFFICE FOR PROJECT SERVICES (UNOPS) PROCUREMENT POLICY

INTRODUCTON

Procurement plays a critical role in organizations all over the world. The significant increase in new establishments (companies) probes for management of companies across all business streams to formulate standard and relevant measures to facilitate and foresee that proper purchasing rules and/or ethics are adhered to; and a good procurement policy thereby reflects supply chain management as a source of competitive advantage (Leire & Monk, 2010). Additionally, a solid policy will benefit the company in keeping costs in line and clearly defining the purchasing process (Tatum, 2013). Nevertheless, new and small companies still fail to formulate good procurement policies; resulting in the lack of a guide to control procurement actions. For that reason, the need for good models aiding procurement to ensure open, fair and transparent purchasing in today’s competitive economic environment seems to be amicably important as the role of purchasing and supply widens. The aim of this paper therefore is to provide a broader view of the purchasing and procurement policy of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS), entailed Chapter 1 of the entity’s procurement manual.

The evaluation of the UNOPS’ procurement policy discussed in this paper begins with a brief background of UNOPS and continues on to high points from literature of procurement policies in general, highlighting only the policy’s proficiency in addressing issues of best procurement practices, the ‘triple-bottom approach’, as well as the ability to order procurement ideas in a way that will provide ease of understanding to those procuring with the entity. The presence of these elements in any policy defines a structure for sustainability (Savitz & Weber, 2013), reflect on...