The Procurement Cycle, from Planning to Handover

Public procurement is a cycle, not a single event: planning and budgeting, drafting specifications and the owner's estimate, the tender itself, contract signing, execution, and finally handover and payment. IPW notes that the most consequential decisions — what to buy, at what price, to what specification — are made long before a tender opens. That is why the organisation argues oversight must begin at planning, where a distorted specification or inflated estimate can predetermine the outcome.