To be effective, contract administration should be a joint effort and not the responsibility of only one entity. The goal of the procurement process is to award contracts in order to fulfill the requirements of the requesting entities. Goods and services are procured to satisfy the needs of an organization libido-portugal.com/. The procuring entity processes requests for goods and services, and before the contract is awarded, consideration must be given to, and preparations made for, contract administration in order to reduce the risk of failure to successfully complete the contract and to fulfill the corresponding need.
Given that, to be effective, the procurement process needs the collaboration of many sectors and departments (requesting entity, finance, technical capabilities for developing the specifications, sometimes engineering know-how), the administration of the resulting contract should also be a combined effort of many departments/entities (procurement, requesting entity, user, finance, etc.) to see to it that the risks of substandard performance and unsatisfactory completion is minimized.
The bulk of contract administration (overseeing performance) responsibility should be with the entity that is closest to where the contract is executed, because it is there that the opportunity exists for early detection of any breach of contract or substandard performance of goods received or services rendered.
Rather than expect any one entity, such as procurement, to be responsible for contract administration, it is preferable to have all the entities (including procurement) involved, and the extent of their participation should be commensurate with the value they can add to the process, given the importance of their expertise to the effective administration of the contract.
To effectively determine this, it is necessary to develop a comprehensive contract administration plan with the participation and buy-in of all entities involved and a thorough understanding of the responsibilities that each has in the administration of the contract.
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