The Regulations govern the legal relationship between any borrower and the World Bank. The World Bank staff responsible for enforcing the Regulations are based in 72 countries. They work with governments to achieve the highest bidding and contract management standards in pursuit of the World Bank's goal of best development results.

The framework and regulations also provide specific guidance for borrowing governments seeking to partner with UN agencies such as the World Health Organization or the World Food Programme, among others.

The Regulations only govern the legal relationship between the borrower and the World Bank. The rights and obligations—for both the borrower and the providers of goods, works, nonconsulting services and consulting services for Investment Project Financing (IPF) operations—are governed by the relevant request for bids or request for proposals, along with any contract signed by the borrower and the providers. The parties' rights are not governed by these Procurement Regulations.

The Procurement Regulations do not apply to the procurement of goods, works, nonconsulting services, and consulting services financed by the Bank:

1. under projects where the Bank Guarantees, provided by the Bank; and
2. through loans made by eligible financial intermediaries to private borrowers.

The Procurement Regulations are applicable to the procurement of goods, works, nonconsulting services, and consulting IPF operations. Procurements under these Regulations span 170 countries and cover diverse locations and some challenging operating environments. Procurements range from highly complex infrastructure, consultancy, major pieces of plant equipment, information technology, research and development, and critical supplies, to simple, routine goods and services. Therefore, the World Bank Regulations strive to be practical in all situations and markets.

The Regulations simply require that each contract "clearly indicate the procedures to address change orders or contract variations." The Regulations offer no further specific guidance, but the model standard procurement documents give standard examples of proper procedures categorized by industry.

The regulations lay out several requirements for Framework Agreements (FAs).

An FA can be concluded with a single provider or with several providers, for the same goods, works, nonconsulting services, or consulting services. the borrower shall decide on the appropriate strategy based on the market conditions and its requirements.

Additionally, FAs can only be used between the borrower's procuring entity and the FA firm. When several procuring entities establish a FA together, a lead entity is appointed to act on behalf of the group of entities. Each entity in the group is identified in the request for bids/request for proposals documents at the time of going to market. Each individual procuring entity shall be specified in each call-off contract.

Under the regulations, a borrower may establish a FA with firms that are capable of delivering specified goods, works, nonconsulting services, and/or consulting services agreeing, in advance, the applicable terms and conditions. These usually include the fees, charge rate, or pricing mechanism.

These FAs may be predate an Investment Project Financing (IPF) operation or be newly established under an IPF operation:

1. Preexisting: the Bank shall be satisfied that a preexisting borrower's FA is consistent with the Bank's core procurement principles; or
2. New: a new FA established by the borrower shall meet the requirements of the Procurement Regulations.

Firms that are awarded a FA have no guarantee of any call-off contracts. The number of firms awarded FAs are thus proportionate to the anticipated demand. This allows all FA firms an opportunity to be awarded a call-off contract.

In PPP arrangements, the Procurement Regulations require the borrower to demonstrate that there is adequate institutional capacity to prepare, structure, procure and manage the PPP project. The borrower achieves this by following the project phases below:

i.  Project Assessment

The borrower shall have conducted suitable economic and financial analysis to confirm:

1. Whether the underlying project is adequately justified, on the basis of a sound and quantified economic analysis the project presents the best VfM, i.e., is cost-benefit justified, and the approach to delivering the benefits, considering the relevant technical, legal, financial, and environmental constraints, irrespective of implementation as a PPP or through other public sector procurement;
2. Whether the project's overall revenue requirements are within the capacity of users, the public authority, or both, to pay for the infrastructure service;
3. That the project risks were identified and assessed and that mitigation measures were considered, and that the residual fiscal risk will not jeopardize fiscal sustainability;
4. That the chosen PPP scheme (i.e., risk-allocation matrix, pay and performance mechanism) resulted from the consideration of alternative PPP schemes and other procurement options; and
5. The commercial viability, that is, whether the project is likely to be able to attract good-quality sponsors and lenders by providing robust and reasonable financial returns.

ii.  Project Structuring

First, the borrower shall ensure that output requirements are included and the output specifications include:

1. Clear performance targets and output requirements that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time bound;
2. How performance will be monitored, including roles for the government's contract management team, the private partner, external monitors, regulators, and users; and
3. The consequences for failure to reach the required performance targets, clearly specified and enforceable.

Secondly, based on the contractual provisions, a risk matrix shall be presented by the borrower to the Bank, exhaustively listing project risks and their appropriate allocation to the contractual parties or to third parties are made efficiently.

And finally, the borrower shall develop a payment and performance mechanism that sets out the principle of performance-based payments upon meeting the provision of contractual assets and service at the agreed service level and service schedule.

iii.  Selection of the Private Partner

The borrower selects the private partner using a competitive selection method consistent with the approved selection methods set forth in the Procurement Regulations. Under rare circumstances, the Bank may agree to a non-competitive selection process.

PPP activities whose procurement processes have been initiated or contracts have been awarded may be financed by the Bank, if the Bank is satisfied with the project justification, feasibility, PPP structure requirements, contract arrangements and the consistency of the selection process for the private partner with the Bank's core procurement principles and the provisions regarding conflicts of interest, eligibility, fraud, and corruption.

The World Bank may agree to finance PPP projects initiated from unsolicited proposals. In all instances of unsolicited proposals, the process for assessing the best purpose fit and VfM approach to awarding a contract initiated by an unsolicited proposal shall be clearly defined by the borrower.

When an unsolicited proposal is subjected to a competitive selection process, the borrower may use one of the following approaches in allowing the firm that submitted the unsolicited proposal to participate in the process:

1. The borrower grants no advantage to the firm in the process. The borrower may separately compensate the firm if permitted under the borrower's applicable regulatory framework; or
2. The firm is granted an advantage in the selection process, such as a point bonus in the evaluation or a guaranteed access to the second stage of a two-stage process. This advantage shall be disclosed in the request for bids or request for proposals document and defined in such a way that it does not prevent effective competition.

iv.  Contract Management

The Bank requires that the borrower submit a contract management plan.

Contract management plans typically contain a summary of details as follows:

1. Identified potential risks (such as delays in the contractor's right of access to site, payment delays, and other defaults in the borrower's contractual obligations that could potentially lead to contractual disputes), and their mitigation;
2. Key contacts and roles and responsibilities of the parties:
   1. The names and contact details of the key contacts for each party;
   2. Ensuring that each party has established the necessary authorizations and delegations for its personnel at the beginning of the contract is an important prerequisite to ensuring that all contracting decisions are valid and enforceable;
3. Communication and reporting procedures;
4. Key contractual terms and conditions;
5. Contractual milestones, including critical path (identified to ensure early detection and mitigation of issues), and payment procedures consistent with contractual provisions;
6. Key contract deliverables, identified and properly described, and updated to account for change orders during the execution of the contract;
7. KPIs and a description of the measurement process (if required);
8. Contract variation/change control mechanisms; and
9. Record-keeping requirements.

The Regulations do not specify a separate regime.

World Bank officials are instructed to be aware of potential bid rigging.