Steps Involved in the Procurement of Consultants

Let us discuss the process to procure a consultant.

Once you identify the assignment and decide to procure the professional services for the assignment, you should take the following steps (these steps depend on the method of selection which will be discussed further in this  unit. The following  steps are for Quality and  Cost  Based  selection (QCBS):

• Prepare the Terms of Reference (TOR) for the assignment.
• Prepare the cost estimate or budget for the assignment.
• Advertise and invite the Expression of Interest.
• Prepare the Shortlist of Consultants.
• Prepare the Request for Proposals (RFP).
• Issue the RFP to the shortlisted consultants.
• Receive the proposals from the shortlisted consultants.
• Evaluate the technical proposals - Quality evaluation.
• Evaluate the financial proposals - Cost evaluation.
• Evaluate the combined proposals and select the winning proposal.
• Negotiate with the selected consultant.
• Award the contract to the selected consultant after negotiations.