Procurement Division

Dear Business Partner,

The United Nations meets the needs of its global operations through the purchase and delivery of goods and services from vendors worldwide. As the holiday season approaches, we would like to express our sincere appreciation for your contribution as a United Nations Business Partner and for supporting the Organization in achieving its goals. We look forward to continuing our successful cooperation. 

The holiday season is traditionally a time when many people exchange gifts. In this context, we would like to take this opportunity to remind all registered and potential vendors that companies doing business with the United Nations are required to accept and comply with the UN Supplier Code of Conduct, which clearly states that the United Nations maintains a zero-tolerance policy on gifts¹ from any individual or entity doing or seeking to do business with the Organization.

If you have any questions regarding the United Nations’ expected standards of conduct for business partners, please contact the Procurement Division: dos-pd@un.org

Thank you once again for your partnership and commitment to the United Nations. We wish you and your family a joyful and peaceful holiday season.

Neris M. Báez García de Mazzora
Director, Procurement Division
Office of Supply Chain Management

¹ e.g. goods, cash, promotional items, hospitality, entertainment, accommodations, invitations and tickets or anything of value

The United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM) has recently conducted a bulk exercise in archiving inactive vendor accounts. This action affected accounts that:

• Had no valid or working email contact(s); and
• Had not been accessed in the past two years.

If a) you are no longer able to log into your account, b)your account is no longer visible, or c) you believe it was archived in error, you may request reactivation by contacting UNGM directly at registry@ungm.org. To facilitate reactivation, please ensure you provide a valid email address, your company name and country where your company is located. Please do not create a new account without consulting UNGM first

In addition, we would like to suggest that you take this opportunity to review your account details and update where necessary, including but not limited to: United Nations Standard Products and Services Code (UNSPSC) and contact person (it is recommended to add more than one contact). Please also revisit to acknowledge the Supplier Code of Conduct which has been recently updated.

Kindly take this opportunity to also update your financial information.

The United Nations (UN) Secretariat Procurement Division (UNPD) has been made aware of fraudulent procurement notices that have been, and continue to be circulated via email, websites, and social media falsely awarding tenders and contracts to vendors and stating that they are issued by, or in association with the United Nations and/or its officials. These correspondences seek to obtain money and, in some cases, personal details from the recipients.

The UN Secretariat Procurement Division wishes to alert the public at large about these fraudulent activities being perpetrated purportedly in the name of the organization, and/or its officials, through different fraud schemes. Accordingly, please be aware that:

• All procurement notices are published on the UN Procurement Division (UNPD) website:https://www.un.org/procurement/welcome-united-nations-procurement-division-unpd and the United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM): https://www.ungm.org/
• The UN does not request any banking information while the procurement process is ongoing. Vendors will only be asked for payment information after a contract is awarded and formalized.
• All official correspondence from the United Nations Secretariat has the “un.org”
  domain, e.g. xxxxxxxx@un.org
• The UN does not charge any fee at any stage of its procurement process (supplier registration, bids submission) or other fee.

The United Nations strongly recommends that the recipients of solicitations (e.g. Request for Quotation, Invitation to Bid, Request for Proposal) and/or communications, such as those described above:

• Verify the authenticity of such information by diligently checking it against procurement notices and contact information posted on the abovementioned websites. Please exercise extreme caution in respect of such solicitations/communications if you have not expressed interest in an upcoming UN Secretariat procurement action and or have not bid on any UN business opportunity in the past.
• Refuse any requests for payment or personal information and report them to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.
• Exercise extreme caution when dealing with any suspicious communication. Financial loss and identity theft can result from the transfer of money or personal information to those issuing such fraudulent correspondence.
• Report such activities to their law enforcement authorities.

Additionally, vendors are cautioned about fraudulent contracts and Purchase Orders (POs). The UNPD has been made aware of counterfeit POs falsely claiming to originate from the United Nations. Vendors should:

• Treat with extreme caution any PO received unexpectedly or not connected to a procurement action in which they have participated.
• Refrain from shipping goods, sharing personal or financial details, or making payments in response to any suspicious PO.
• Immediately report any such fraudulent POs to local law enforcement authorities.

For further information, please contact the Procurement Division at dos-pd@un.org for Headquarters, or dos-pd-gpss@un.org for Entebbe, Uganda.

Effective 1 June 2024 vendors that wish to respond to the Requests for Information of the UN Secretariat will need to log into the United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM) to submit their responses. While Requests for Information notices will still be published on the UN Procurement Division website and the Mobile app as well as in UNGM, vendors will be redirected to UNGM to submit their responses. This will eliminate the need for vendors to provide additional information which already exists in their UNGM profile. With this change, vendors will no longer receive an email confirmation once they submit their response. However, UNGM will clearly show that their response is received.

The above is in line with the change introduced in June 2023 to the process of responding to Requests for Expression of Interest of the UN Secretariat and will avoid any confusion for vendors moving forward.

With the introduction of the Ariba e-tendering system, vendors need to ensure that their contact details in UNGM are up to date. Ariba solely utilizes the vendor contact information that is in UNGM as the source of vendors’ contacts. You are strongly encouraged to review and update your contact information in UNGM, which is critical to ensure that your company and nominated contacts could be invited to solicitations in which you have expressed an interest.

If you have any issues accessing your account, please refer to the following articles in the UNGM help center.

The United Nations (UN) Secretariat Procurement Division (UNPD) has been made aware of fraudulent procurement notices that have been, and continue to be circulated via email, websites, and social media falsely awarding tenders and contracts to vendors and stating that they are issued by, or in association with the United Nations and/or its officials. These correspondences seek to obtain money and, in some cases, personal details from the recipients.

The UN Secretariat Procurement Division wishes to alert the public at large about these fraudulent activities being perpetrated purportedly in the name of the organization, and/or its officials, through different fraud schemes. Accordingly, please be aware that:

• * All procurement notices are published on the UN Procurement Division (UNPD) website:https://www.un.org/procurement/welcome-united-nations-procurement-division-unpd and the United Nations Global Marketplace (UNGM): https://www.ungm.org/
• * The UN does not request any banking information while the procurement process is ongoing. Vendors will only be asked for payment information after a contract is awarded and formalized.
• * All official correspondence from the United Nations Secretariat has the “un.org”
  domain, e.g. xxxxxxxx@un.org
• * The UN does not charge any fee at any stage of its procurement process (supplier registration, bids submission) or other fee.

The United Nations strongly recommends that the recipients of solicitations (e.g. Request for Quotation, Invitation to Bid, Request for Proposal) and/or communications, such as those described above:

• * Verify the authenticity of such information by diligently checking it against procurement notices and contact information posted on the abovementioned websites. Please exercise extreme caution in respect of such solicitations/communications if you have not expressed interest in an upcoming UN Secretariat procurement action and or have not bid on any UN business opportunity in the past.
• * Refuse any requests for payment or personal information and report them to local law enforcement authorities for appropriate action.
• * Exercise extreme caution when dealing with any suspicious communication. Financial loss and identity theft can result from the transfer of money or personal information to those issuing such fraudulent correspondence.
• * Report such activities to their law enforcement authorities.

Additionally, vendors are cautioned about fraudulent contracts and Purchase Orders (POs). The UNPD has been made aware of counterfeit POs falsely claiming to originate from the United Nations. Vendors should:

• * Treat with extreme caution any PO received unexpectedly or not connected to a procurement action in which they have participated.
• * Refrain from shipping goods, sharing personal or financial details, or making payments in response to any suspicious PO.
• * Immediately report any such fraudulent POs to local law enforcement authorities.

For further information, please contact the Procurement Division at dos-pd@un.org for Headquarters, or dos-pd-gpss@un.org for Entebbe, Uganda.

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The 20th Annual EU-UN Procurement Seminar took place on 8-9 April 2024 in New York City organized by the European Union Procurement Forum (EUPF) in collaboration with the United Nations Office of Supply Chain Management (OSCM).

Mr. Romain Dubourdieu, President of the EUPF, and Mr. Atul Khare, Under Secretary-General for the Department of Operational Support (DOS), welcomed the participants and conveyed the United Nations OSCM mandate of carrying out our mission while obtaining best value for money.

The objective of the seminar was to provide attendees with valuable information on the goods and services required by the UN to execute its mandates, explain the vendor registration process, how to stay abreast of and participate in upcoming business opportunities to expand the UN’s supplier roster with new companies interested in supplying to the UN.  In addition to the representatives from OSCM, there were also representatives from UNDP, UNICEF, UN Women, and the World Bank.

The seminar was attended by sixty-three (63) participants representing fifty-one (51) companies from eleven (11) EU countries, where theme-specific workshops and deep-dive sessions on specific business categories such as, Renewable Energy, Security, Information & Communication Technologies, Food Rations, and Transportation & Aviation were held.  The seminar also featured a vendor registration workshop, and interactive case study, an information session on Ariba, the United Nations e-tendering platform, as well as one-on-one meetings with company representatives.  

Office of the Supply Chain Management for the Department of Operational Support would like to take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to the European Procurement Forum for organizing such a successful event.  We are looking forward to the 21st edition of EUPF in 2025!

Vendors are advised that the United Nations does not promote, recommend or consider the engagement of outside consultants or intermediaries necessary during any step of the procurement process. This includes the preparation of bids, advice on the UN's processes and policies, and award or contract implementation stage. The Procurement Manual and the respective information on the Procurement Division's website outlines in detail any pertinent information free of charge.