© Matti Mattila, CPFA, CISA, CIA

An Example - A Procurement Process

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The ECAR model can be applied in building, revising or assessing internal control of a process. The example here deals with building internal control in a procurement process.
Main Control Objectives
In a procurement cycle the following phases can be identified:
(1) identification of procurement needs
(2) preparation of a procurement
(3) preparation of a procurement decision
(4) making a procurement decision
(5) monitoring the delivery and reception of commodities
(6) processing the bill
(7) entering the transaction information onto the accounting system
(8) payment of the bill [24].
The main control objective in the identification of procurement needs could be stated as follows: ”Procurement needs are identified accurately, also examining them in a broader context, according to the instructions, and there is information available to judge to what degree this has taken place". The objective gives origin to detailed control objectives presented next.


[24] The key things to be controlled in various phases of procurement are shown in the table below.