Enhancing Procurement Practices: Comprehensive Approach to Acquiring Complex Facilities and Projects

Enhancing Procurement Practices is organised around four main points:
-overview and analysis of procurement principles,
-practical approach to drafting of solicitation and contract documents,
-conduct of procurement procedures,
-overview of the e-procurement arena.

Although the addressed procurement methods can be used on a wide scale, this book concentrates primarily on such cases when the subject of procurement is complex, or the solicited goods and services are relatively simple but the intended long-term relationship calls for a fairly conscious source selection. Project procurement, the most complicated form of buying civil engineering work, goods, and services, is thoroughly addressed.

Beyond the structured overview and comparative analysis of terminology and principles, the book describes such new concepts as single-source preference for simultaneous procurements, dual-term frame contract for parallel suppliers, and the use of semi-consolidated contract documents. Effective utilisation of theories boils down - among others - to a consistent set of procurement-related terms, proven methodology for drafting comprehensive solicitation documents and contracts, and practical details of communication with offerors.

Author’s Biography

Attila Kovács graduated in 1977, earning an MScEE degree. In the first half of his career he was involved in exporting complex telecommunications systems from Hungary to the Middle East and North Africa. These projects were awarded through competitive tendering procedures, so he gained notable bidding and contracting experiences in the suppliers’ frontline. During this period he regularly wrote technical and marketing articles published in different international periodicals.

After a turn in 1991 he found himself on the opposite side of the table as director of the procurement subsidiary of Matáv Hungarian Telecommunications Co. Ltd., preparing and conducting international competitive tendering procedures for selecting consultants, suppliers of complex telecom and IT systems, building construction contractors, and other undertakers. In this second half of his career he obtained remarkable skills in the procurement arena, including projects procured according to the rules of international financing institutes like the World Bank, EBRD, and EIB. Meanwhile he also contributed to the procurement of several domestic and foreign projects as an advisor. In the last years he was invited as guest lecturer and workshop conductor, both in Hungary and abroad.

Recently he has gotten involved in the regulatory arena, too, as an EU liaison manager."