Research on Goods Versus Services Contracts

A plain read of the Procurement Ombudsman’s mandate defined in the Department of Public Works and Government Services Act and the operationalization of their mandate through the Procurement Ombudsman’s Regulations, appears to suggest that the Procurement Ombudsman can receive complaints once a contract has been awarded for matters related to the evaluation of bids, the contract award, as well as c [...] However, given the perceived scope of the Procurement Ombudsman’s mandate, there appear to be linkages between the legislation and regulations and the pre-contractual, contracting, and contract administration phases of the four phases of the contracting process (see Table 1). [...] However, leveraging the limited data and the expertise of a panel of international public procurement experts, the researchers have attempted to draw certain inferences as to the root causes of the growth in service complaints. [...] The experts came to the conclusion that the current system is incompatible for the procurement of services and is exacerbated by a lack of human capacity in procurement, leading to higher numbers of service contract complaints. [...] Given the complex and dynamic environment of public procurement generally, the higher level of difficulty associated with the procurement of services as compared to the procurement of goods, the capability of individual procurement and contracting officials to execute service procurement as it should be executed is critical to the strategic success of public organizations.