Purchasing and Supply Chain
Procurement and Sourcing
Tendering and Procurement Practices Training
Running a tender that produces a defensible award, and a contract somebody can actually manage afterwards.
- Duration
- 5 days
- Contact hours
- 30
- Level
- Intermediate
- Fee from
- US$1,500
Overview
A tender is where most of a contract's problems are created: a specification written around one supplier's product, criteria weighted after the bids arrive, an evaluation nobody recorded, and an award that cannot be explained to an unsuccessful bidder or to an auditor. The commercial damage usually arrives later, when the contract turns out to have bought something nobody needed at a price nobody can compare. This week runs the process in order, from specification to award and handover, with the documentation each stage has to leave behind.
Who should attend
Procurement officers and buyers running competitive processes, technical staff who write specifications, evaluation panel members, and internal auditors reviewing awards.
What you will be able to do
- Write a specification in terms of requirement and outcome rather than of a product.
- Set and weight evaluation criteria before bids are opened, and record them.
- Run an evaluation an unsuccessful bidder and an auditor could both follow.
- Handle a clarification, a deviation and a late bid without compromising the process.
- Hand the awarded contract over so it can be managed against what was bid.
How it is taught
Short input, then work, across 5 days of roughly 6 teaching hours each. Exercises run on situations delegates bring rather than on a case study written for a different organisation. Cohorts are capped so that everybody is asked something.
Available as classroom, live online, in house.
Programme outline
Day 1
Before the tender
- Establishing the requirement rather than restating a request
- Market engagement without pre selecting a supplier
- Choosing the route: quotation, tender, framework or negotiation
- Thresholds, approvals and the authority to proceed
Day 2
The specification
- Outcome and performance terms instead of a product name
- Where a brand reference is unavoidable, and how to handle it
- Whole life cost, and what the specification has to ask for
- Reviewing a specification for who it excludes
Day 3
Running the process
- Documents, timetable and a single point of contact
- Clarifications answered to every bidder at once
- Receipt, opening, and the late bid
- Confidentiality and conflicts, declared and recorded
Day 4
Evaluation and award
- Criteria and weightings fixed before opening
- Scoring guidance, so a panel scores consistently
- Price and quality combined without hiding the trade off
- Abnormally low bids, deviations and non compliant tenders
Day 5
Award and handover
- A recommendation that explains the decision
- Debriefing an unsuccessful bidder
- The record an auditor or a challenge would need
- Handing over to whoever manages the contract
What you leave with
- A specification rewritten in outcome terms for one of the delegate's own requirements.
- An evaluation matrix with weightings and scoring guidance set in advance.
- An award recommendation and handover pack in audit ready form.
Dates and fees
| Dates | Location | Format | Fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23 to 27 November 2026 | Nairobi, Kenya | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 30 November 2026 to 4 December 2026 | Kampala, Uganda | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 7 to 11 December 2026 | Dubai, United Arab Emirates | Classroom | US$1,500 |
| 14 to 18 December 2026 | Port Louis, Mauritius | Classroom | US$1,500 |
Fees are per delegate and cover tuition, all programme materials and the certificate. Travel, accommodation and visas are arranged by the delegate. Registration closes two weeks before a programme starts.
Certificate
A GATI certificate recording what was attended, issued after the programme has run and attendance has been taken. Attending at least 80 per cent of the days earns a certificate of completion; attending less earns a certificate of attendance stating exactly what was attended. Every certificate carries a code that anybody can check against GATI's own record.
It records participation. and GATI does not claim one it does not hold.