Procurement Practitioner’s Handbook

The UN Procurement Practitioner’s Handbook has been prepared by the “Common Procurement Certification Scheme for the United Nations (UN)” project Task Force and Steering Committee. The latter is part of the Inter-Agency Procurement Working Group (IAPWG) Training and Certification Sub Working Group. This Handbook is based on the following publications and documented practices:  UN Procurement Competence Baseline  Common Guidelines for Procurement in the UN System1  existing procurement manuals among the various UN organizations  known procurement practices in the UN system of organizations  third party literature on procurement in the public sector. Procurement in the UN system is governed by the established regulations and rules of each UN organization. While such regulations and rules may differ in matters of detail, all organizations are guided by the Common Guidelines for Procurement. These Common Guidelines cover procurement stages from sourcing activities that precede a requisition to the execution of a procurement contract. They do not cover either the details of procurement, logistics or contract implementation matters that may be particular to each UN organization concerned. In addition to the Common Guidelines for Procurement this Practitioner’s Handbook was developed. The idea is to provide a broader picture of the different ways of doing procurement within the UN system. Therefore the authors consider it a descriptive synopsis of good practices within the UN system rather than a prescriptive document such as the Common Guidelines or existing UN procurement manuals.