Procurement Plan

A procurement plan is a document that sets out a buyer's intended strategy and planned approach for conducting procurement activities. CanadaBuys describes it as an outline prepared before significant procurement actions, such as posting an Advance Contract Award Notice (ACAN) or entering contract negotiations.

The plan supports decisions on competition, sole sourcing, and industrial and regional benefits. The term is used by Canadian federal buyers and by NATO procurement organizations, and each uses its own version of the document for its own planning and approval process.

How Canadian federal buyers use the procurement plan

CanadaBuys instructs Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) buyers to prepare a procurement plan and obtain approval for it before issuing a solicitation of offers. The plan is part of the internal approval documents a buyer assembles before a procurement goes to market. It is also used for procurements that involve significant actions, including posting an ACAN or entering contract negotiations.

One purpose of the plan is to review the options open to the buyer. These include competitive procurement versus sole source, and industrial and regional benefits. CanadaBuys also publishes separate guidance on developing a procurement strategy, which comes earlier in the buyer's process.

Two forms tied to approval level

CanadaBuys identifies two forms of the document, depending on who must approve the procurement:

• Procurement plan: used for procurements at or below the Director General approval level.
• Formal procurement plan template: used for procurements at or above the Assistant Deputy Minister level.

The approval level therefore decides how formal the document is. The CanadaBuys procurement plan page sets out both forms.

The risk assessment that comes first

A Procurement Risk Assessment (PRA) must be completed before the procurement plan. The assessment identifies risks and supports the development of mitigation strategies for medium- and high-risk procurements. The plan is then written with those findings already on the table, so the strategy it records reflects the identified risks.

What a NATO procurement plan records

In NATO procurement, the plan captures the core requirement. The NATO Procurement Manual says it must identify the type of products or services, the estimated quantity, the estimated value, and the delivery date or expected quarter. The plan should be submitted to the Procurement Service in a timely manner, together with other pertinent information.

NATO's procurement policy applies to procurement conducted by NATO and/or national bodies using NATO common funding. A related NATO term is the acquisition plan, used for higher-value and more complex procurements. It describes the acquisition background, objectives, procurement strategy and plan of action, as set out in the Bi-SC Capability Programme Reporting document.

What a procurement plan means for a supplier

The Canadian guidance treats the procurement plan as an internal buyer approval document. It is not normally a supplier deliverable, and a bidder is not usually asked to submit the buyer's plan.

Suppliers feel its effects through the outcomes it informs. These include the chosen procurement method, the approval to issue a solicitation, any ACAN or sole-source process, and the requirements written into the solicitation. A supplier tracking an opportunity should read the ACAN or solicitation closely, because those documents carry the decisions the plan supported. A supplier working on NATO-funded procurement should expect the buyer's planning to capture the product or service type, estimated quantity and value, and delivery timing before the procurement proceeds.