Stakeholders are individuals and groups who have an interest or ‘stake’ in the organisation. At the extreme they can be understood as anyone who is affected by the decisions made by an organisation. They are an important interface between an organisation and its environment.
There are three categories of stakeholders.
– Internal stakeholders exist within the boundaries of the organisation (e.g. managers, employees).
– Connected stakeholders are those outside the organisation – e.g. suppliers, partners, customers and shareholders – who have a direct interest in the organisation’s activities.
– External stakeholders include national and local government, the public and pressure groups.
Procurement stakeholders are individuals, organizations or classes thereof who have an interest in results or outcomes of Procurement. Procurement audit involve at least three separate parties:
a) The procurement auditor: the persons or the institution to whom the task of conducting the procurement is given or delegated
b) Responsible party- the individuals or organizations responsible for the subject matter information, for managing the subject matter or for addressing recommendations, and
c) Users of procurement audit report: the ones for whom the audit report is prepared
In the framework of procurement audit, depending on the type of audit objectives and on the audit approach, responsible parties and intended users could vary a lot.
Procurement is a process where a lot of different entities and individuals participate which we refer to procurement stakeholders which include;
• Procurement function- responsible for the acquisition of goods works and services for the organization.
• External consultants providing assistance and studies
• Financing institutions to fund or co-fund partnership projects: these can include banks or international funding organizations
• Suppliers / economic operators interested in supplying the contracting authority
• Owners and managers of electronic platforms where procurement information is hosted
• Associations of public and private entities with interest in procurement (ex: engineers or constructors)
• Legislative and executive bodies-Public Procurement Regulatory Authority, KISM, and Public Procurement review Board and Treasury. They are responsible of implementation of procurement procedures.
• National or international oversight institutions or commissions on public procurement
• Citizens as taxpayers, users of the services and/or as individuals affected by the investments
All these may be responsible parties or users of procurement audit reports, subject to the audit as owners of relevant information and addressees of recommendations. For example, the SAI can conclude on a global public procurement audit that laws and regulations on public procurement should be amended (addressing this recommendation to parliament) or can conclude that public works projects have bad quality (formulating recommendations to the professional association of engineers).