A Practical Way to Review Procurement Risk
Where procurement fraud actually concentrates — specifications, exceptions, comparisons, vendor presence, post-award — and how to review when time is short.
When time is limited, reviewing everything is not realistic.
What matters is reviewing the right things. Instead of treating all procurements equally, focus on a few targeted checks:
Look at how requirements are written before looking at who won.
Overly narrow criteria, unnecessary qualifications, or language that mirrors a known product can shape the outcome before competition begins. That's where further attention may be required.
Emergency and sole-source pathways are necessary. What matters is how often they are used, for what types of purchases, and with which vendors. Look into those stats to identify potential patterns and help you narrow which tenders present higher risk.
Look at the same category of goods or services across different procurements. Large price differences, different procurement methods, or repeated vendor selection can indicate underlying issues.
A vendor list may look diverse on paper. But shared contact details, overlapping ownership, or similar documentation can suggest otherwise and reveal a wider fraud pattern.
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Topics: Fraud & Corruption · Audit & Forensic Accounting · Investigations
