Southern Africa Development Community Secretariat – Procurement and Grants Policy Article 12. Procurement Planning (1) The Procuring Entity and/or The SADC Secretariat shall develop annual procurement plans, aligned to the business plans and the budget provision of the organization, with a view to achieving maximum value for expenditures and the other objectives set forth in this Policy. (2) The specific procedures, the role and responsibilities of various departments in the elaboration of the procurement plans shall be detailed in the SADC Secretariat Procurement Regulations. (3) The procurement plan shall present information about contracts SADC Secretariat expects to launch or sign in a fiscal year. (4) At minimum, the procurement plan shall contain the following information: (a) a brief description of the contracts; (b) the estimated value of the contracts; (c) the category of procurement; (d) the procurement method; (e) number of lots; (f) the main milestones in the procurement procedures and the estimated dates when they are expected to be attained; (g) the estimated date when the contracts are expected to be signed; and (h) the duration of the contracts. (5) The procurement plans shall be subject to annual review and be updated as and when required. (6) The Procuring Entity shall advertise a simplified version of the procurement plan on the SADC Secretariat’s website. Article 13. Rules concerning the description of goods, works or services (1) This Policy and the Procurement Regulations shall regulate the procurement of goods, works and services. The definition of each type of contract is stated in the glossary of terms. (2) Service contracts may be fee based or global price. Works contracts can be unit price or lump sum based. The definitions shall be found in the glossary of terms and shall be further developed in the Guidelines. (3) To the extent possible, any specifications, plans, drawings, designs and requirements or descriptions of goods, works or services shall be based only on the relevant and objective technical and quality characteristics of the goods, works or services to be procured. There shall be no requirement of, or reference to a particular trade mark, name, patent, design, type, specific origin or producer unless there is no other sufficiently precise or intelligible way of describing the characteristics of the goods, works or services to be procured and provided that words such as "or substantially equivalent" are included. (4) International standards shall be used, where available, for describing the features, requirements, symbols and terminology relating to the technical and quality characteristics of the goods, works or services to be procured, as well as in formulating specifications, making plans, drawings and designs to be included in the solicitation documents; (5) Due regard shall be given to the use of standardized trade terms (e.g. INCOTERMS), where available, in formulating the terms and conditions of contracts and other documents. 13