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Public Procurement is the process by which public authorities, such as government departments, state agencies or local authorities, purchase works, goods or services from companies.
Within the public sector, procurement is a huge expense funded with taxpayer euros.
A Process Audit can provide assurance that the approach to any competitive processes is consistent with and in compliance with EU Directives and/or the National Public Procurement Guidelines for Goods & Services.
A Typical Procurement Process Audit
The procurement audit process will normally follow an approach common to other types of audit. This will typically include the following steps:
- Establish the decision made by the public sector body awarding the public procurement contract.
- Establish the audit trail i.e. the process by which the decision was made, including identifying key documents, people making the decisions and how the decisions have been documented.
- Follow the decision-making process from start to finish, using a structured approach for each stage, taking account of the need to allocate audit resources to the planning and preparation phase and the contract execution phase.
- Determine the range of sources of evidence to be used which will include internal and external sources such as documents, meetings, inspection (including by electronic means), data analytics and third-party evidence from publicly available sources.
- Form a judgement about the process, the award decision and the execution of award decision.
- Document the audit conclusions.
- Determine how and when to report on the decision made, including any follow-up of the implementation of conclusions and recommendations from past audits.
