Procurement Review Committee

A Procurement Review Committee is an internal ADB body that provides independent quality-control review of significant or complex procurement decisions on ADB-financed projects, checking that proposed approaches, evaluation reports, and award recommendations comply with ADB's procurement policy before they proceed.

What is the Procurement Review Committee?

ADB's procurement oversight operates at two levels: external supervision through prior-review (where ADB clears borrower procurement actions before execution) and internal quality assurance through committee-based review within ADB itself. The Procurement Review Committee sits in the internal layer, typically reviewing cases where the procurement approach is novel, the contract value is large, or the technical complexity warrants specialist scrutiny beyond what the task team can provide alone.

The committee's role is to assess whether the proposed procurement method, evaluation criteria, shortlisting decisions, or award recommendations are consistent with adb-procurement-policy and the core-procurement-principles of economy, efficiency, fairness, transparency, and integrity. Where it identifies gaps, it issues recommendations for correction before the action proceeds. This internal review complements rather than replaces the borrower-side no-objection process, which governs what ADB approves in the executing agency's procurement actions.

Why the Procurement Review Committee matters for bidders

Bidders do not interact directly with ADB's internal review bodies, but understanding that such bodies exist helps suppliers interpret delays in procurement timelines. When an ADB project's evaluation process takes longer than expected, it sometimes reflects internal review requirements rather than executing-agency inefficiency. More broadly, the existence of committee-level oversight signals that ADB procurement is subject to multiple layers of scrutiny, which strengthens the integrity protections that benefit compliant bidders. Firms that lose a procurement and believe the process was flawed have recourse through ADB's complaint mechanisms, and the internal review record can be part of the evidence base in such cases.

FAQ

Is the Procurement Review Committee involved in every ADB contract?

No. Internal committee review is typically reserved for high-value, high-risk, or technically complex procurements. Routine contracts are processed through standard task-team review and prior-review processes without a separate committee.

Does the committee communicate its decisions to bidders?

The committee's role is internal to ADB. Its outputs inform ADB's communications with the executing agency, which in turn informs the no-objection letters that mark key procurement milestones.

Can a supplier request committee review of a procurement decision?

Suppliers cannot directly petition the committee. Concerns about a specific procurement should be directed to ADB's designated project officer or submitted through ADB's accountability and complaint mechanisms.