Southern Africa Development Community Secretariat – Procurement and Grants Policy Definitions and Glossary of Terms For the purposes of this Policy: (1) “Accounting Officer” refers to the Executive Secretary’s overall responsibility on financial administration of SADC resources. The Accounting Officer may appoint/ or delegate to, one or more deputy Accounting Officers to discharge functions on matters of financial administration in place of the Accounting Officer. (2) “Addendum” means the document through which significant modification to the terms and conditions of a document or contract are introduced. (3) “E-Procurement” means a dedicated system permitting bidders to submit bids by electronic means. (4) “Board of Auditors” means the body of External Auditors established as per the requirement of Article 29 of the Treaty. (5) “Bidding Documents” means the file containing all the documents needed to prepare and properly submit a bid. (6) “Bid” means a written and formal offer to supply goods, works or services for an agreed price. (7) “Bid security” means a security provided by the bidder that he would accept and sign the contract in case he is awarded it and, in case he does not, the bid security is forfeited. (8) “Bidder” means an economic operator submitting a bid, proposal or quotation; willing to conclude a contract with the Procuring Entity. (9) “Coercive practices” is impairing or harming, or threatening to impair or harm, directly or indirectly, any party or the property of the party to influence improperly the actions of a party; (10) “Council of Ministers” means the governing body of the SADC Secretariat, established by Article 9 of the Treaty. (11) “Collusive practice” is an arrangement between two or more parties designed to achieve an improper purpose, including to influence improperly the actions of another party; (12) "Contract" means an agreement between the Contracting Authority and an economic operator resulting from the application of the appropriate and approved procurement procedures or proceedings, and shall be concluded in the pursuance of a bid award decision. (13) “Contracting Authority” means the entity signing the procurement or grant contract. It might be the procuring entity or a different entity, especially in cases of secondary procurement. (14) “Conflict of interest”, in the context of this Policy, means that an economic operator shall not be allowed to get engaged in any procurement process for delivery of any kind of services, goods or works that would be in conflict with their prior or current obligations to SADC Secretariat or other clients, or that may place them in the position of being unable to carry out the contract in the best interest of the SADC Secretariat and/or the Procuring Entity. (15) “Consortium” means a grouping of eligible natural and legal persons or public entities which submits a tender or a grant application, under a tender procedure or in response to a call for proposals. It may be a permanent, legally established grouping or a grouping which has been constituted informally for a specific tender procedure or call for proposals. All members of a consortium (i.e. the leader and all other partners) are jointly and severally liable to the Contracting Authority. (16) "Consultancy Services" means a wide variety of services such as advisory services; research and research investigation, management; engineering; construction supervision; design and architectural 2