Walk us through a procurement of 20 laptops

This is the case every procurement and supply chain panel uses, in the written test or across the table. They score three things: the order of the steps, the control at each step (who approves, who checks, who signs), and your honesty about where the process usually breaks: a request with no budget line, a supplier who is “the only one who can”, a manager who wants it tomorrow. Say the steps as a story, not a list of donor words.

1. 1Purchase request, approved by the budget holder, with the budget line, the specification agreed with IT (processor, memory, storage, warranty) and the date the laptops are needed.
2. 2Check the threshold. Twenty laptops at about 600 USD is about 12,000 USD: in most organisations above the three-quotation band, so a request for quotations goes to at least three to five registered suppliers, with a closing date, bids sent sealed or to a shared procurement email, never to your personal phone.
3. 3Evaluation by a committee of three, not only logistics: compliance with the specification first, then price, warranty and delivery time. Everyone signs the bid analysis sheet.
4. 4Purchase order signed by the authorised manager, accepted in writing by the supplier, after a check that the supplier is a registered business and not on any sanctions list.
5. 5Delivery: count and test every laptop against the PO, record the serial numbers, sign the GRN with a second person who is not the buyer, tag each laptop and enter it in the asset register.
6. 6Payment: the three-way match of PO, GRN and invoice, then finance pays the supplier by bank transfer or mobile money to the registered business account, never cash to a person.
7. 7File: request, RFQ, all bids, the analysis sheet, PO, waybill, GRN, invoice and the asset list, in one folder by PO number, paper and scanned.