Southern Africa Development Community Secretariat – Procurement and Grants Policy (a) accountability of the Procuring Entity’s staff engaged in procurement activities, by defining clear roles and responsibilities among the staff and organizational structures involved in the procurement activities; (b) separation of duties between various department and functions within the Procuring Entity organization, by ensuring that procurement responsibilities are cascaded among various structures within the organization (c) quality control over the procurement activities, by ensuring that all procurement documents sent for approval are subject to ex-ante control (d) absence of conflict of interest, by ensuring that the structure has adequate checks and balances and no player is at the same time referee; and (e) efficiency in the implementation of procurement activities, by ensuring that the implementation structure will not require unnecessary resources and/or promote redundant processes that are costly and/or time consuming for the organization. Article 46. Modifying contracts (1) (2) Contracts may be subject to modification during implementation provided that the following principles are observed: (a) Contract modifications shall be formalized through an administrative order or an addendum to the contract in accordance with the provisions of the General Conditions of the Contract and accepted by the contracting parties. (b) No modification to the contract may alter the award conditions prevailing at the time the contract was awarded. (c) Any modification of the contract value shall not exceed an aggregate amount of up to twenty five percent (25%) of the original contract amount. (d) Any modification of the duration of the contract shall not exceed an aggregate of maximum of one hundred percent (100%) of the duration of the initial contract. (e) All modification shall be signed by contracting parties prior to the expiration of the contract. (f) All variations under this Article shall be approved by Tender Committee. The procedures for initiating and approving any modification to the contract shall be detailed in the Procurement Regulations. Article 47. Monitoring and Auditing of Procurement Activities (1) The SADC Secretariat shall conduct regular Monitoring and Evaluation of the procurement activities financed by the SADC Secretariat through its dedicated structure. This will include contractors’ performance. (2) The Monitoring and Evaluation reports shall be presented at least once per year to the Executive 35