Southern Africa Development Community Secretariat – Procurement and Grants Policy of a corrupt, fraudulent, coercive, or collusive practice; and/or threatening, harassing, or intimidating any party to prevent it from disclosing its knowledge of matters relevant to the investigation or from pursuing the investigation; or (ii) acts intended to impede the exercise of the SADC Secretariat’s or governmental inspection audit rights. (38) “Open Bidding” means a procurement method for acquisition of goods, works and services which involves an invitation to submit a bid in a competitive bidding process to all interested economic operators. The description and conditions of application of this method is to be found in the Article 21 of this Policy. (39) "Procurement" means the legal acquisition by any means of goods, works or services required to satisfy the needs of the SADC Secretariat. (40) “Procurement method” means the procedures through which the Procuring Entity purchases services, goods and works. (41) “Procurement Procedure under Multiple Framework Contracts” means a limited bidding procedure to be used with contractors with whom the Procuring Entity has signed a framework contract. The description and conditions of application of this method is to be found in the Article 27 of this Policy. (42) "Procuring Entity" means the SADC Secretariat structure designated by the Accounting Officer to commit funds and implement programmes/project/activities on its behalf. (43) "Price" means the amount as of money asked for or given in exchange for a service, good(s) or work. (44) “Proposal” means an offer by a supplier in response to a request for proposal. (45) “Public contracts” means those contracts concluded in writing between one or more legal entities and one or more contracting authorities in order to obtain, against the payment of price paid in whole or in part, the supply of goods, the implementation of works, the provision of services or the attribution of grants for SADC community benefits. (46) “Regional Restricted Bidding” means a competitive procurement method which entails a prequalification process including the publication at regional (SADC) level, as the first step, and an invitation to bid opened only to the prequalified bidders, as the second step. The description and conditions of application of this method is to be found in the Article 22 of this Policy. (47) “Regional Preference” means an evaluation method through which the Procurement Entity grants bidders that are offering services, goods and works originating from the SADC Countries an evaluation advantage over the bidders offering similar services, goods and works originating from outside the SADC Countries. More details are to be found in Article 16 of this Policy. (48) “Restricted Bidding” means a procurement method whereby the first step is pre-qualification and the second step an invitation to bid to pre-qualified bidders only. The description and conditions of application of this method is to be found in the Article 22 of this Policy. (49) “SADC” means Southern African Development Community and its institutions established by the Treaty. (50) “SADC Secretariat” means the principal executive institution of SADC responsible for, amongst others, the strategic planning and management of SADC programmes, implementation of decisions of SADC policy organs and institutions, such as, Summit, Council and the Troikas. (51) “SADC Treaty” or “Treaty” means the treaty establishing SADC, as amended. 5