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March 17, 2023 | Bonfire Interactive
We recently chatted with seasoned procurement pros at our OntarioTalk event, and they had some great compliance advice that applies to all jurisdictions.
Our panelists included:
They all shared their experiences and what worked well in their agencies. Find the summary of their advice in this article or watch the full conversation here.
In order to be compliant, you have to know and understand what to be compliant with. There’s no shortage of federal and state/provincial regulations to adhere to, so meeting them all—plus your corporate policies—is your challenge.
Having clear policies and procedures ensures everyone on your team is processing things in the exact same way while complying to the same standards.
Ask yourself these questions:
Like most things, procurement compliance starts at the top. While procurement can create the initial policies and procedures, leadership gets the final say.
If you’re pushing compliance across all departments that you work with, making sure your leadership team has your back is essential. This ensures your internal stakeholders understand that you’re not forcing them to follow made-up rules, but adhering to corporate-wide policies to make sure things run smoothly, are risk-averse, and follow the law.
Educating internal clients on procurement compliance is incredibly important—which all our panelists echoed. They need to understand what they’re complying with, why, and how to stay compliant, or else they’ll do what they feel is best. Educate on the benefits to both them and the organization if the rules are followed—such as spending budget efficiently, increased transparency, avoiding legal issues, streamlined workflows, etc.
“We are not policing [internal stakeholders] or policing how they are spending budget but they are accountable for the budget, the risk, and the spend. It’s not a procurement policy, it’s a corporate policy. Everyone has to buy in.” – Hend Salem, Manager of Strategic Sourcing – Non Clinical, The Ottawa Hospital
Making sure there are processes in place to catch mistakes before they become problems is a crucial part of the procurement compliance process. Your team—and your whole organization—can land in hot water if policy and procedure aren’t followed to the T.
Regulations like Ontario’s Broader Public Sector Procurement Directive give a list of requirements for certain documents, and our panelists have baked these into their own review processes. Many regulations also have requirements for segregation of duties and approval responsibilities that can help you craft your own procedures.
Procurement compliance and risk management doesn’t just fall to the procurement department—it’s everyone’s responsibility. But it is procurement’s duty to make sure policies and procedures are standardized, accessible, and easily understood by internal clients.
Procurement technology is your ally. It helps you centralize and manage documents, create compliance checks, follow custom approval workflows, collaborate with your team and internal stakeholders, and so much more.
Bonfire Interactive
Bonfire helps public procurement teams reach better sourcing outcomes through an experience that’s blazingly fast, powered by peer insights, and so easy to use—vendors love it just as much as buyers do.
Bonfire tip:
Use procurement tech with compliance built-in.