AC-02 · our practice ref · series-structure

Select the supplier on stated criteria

Practice AC-02 in the Acquisition Management group. The basis is series-structure, and the row asks for 3 pieces of evidence.

At a glance

Ref: AC-02
Process: Acquisition Management
Basis: series-structure
Source: Public abstract, process list
Evidence: 3 items
Gaps: 2 common

Evidence to keep

Acquisition ManagementThe selection criteria and the evaluation record
Acquisition ManagementThe supplier's evidence of capability
Acquisition ManagementThe decision record and the alternatives considered

Questions before you sign

What did we require the supplier to be able to do?
What evidence did they give us?
Which alternative did we reject, and why?

The practice, in our words

Select the supplier against criteria written before the responses arrive: technical fit, evidence of similar work, capacity, commercial terms and the ability to provide the evidence the VSE needs. Record the evaluation and the decision.

What it means in a VSE

Three criteria and a score are enough for a small acquisition. Keep the evidence the supplier provided, because it becomes part of the VSE's own file. Check that the supplier can give you the test records you will be asked for.

In a firm of 25 people or fewer, select the supplier on stated criteria has to earn its time. The test for AC-02 is not whether the team understands it but whether the artefact exists at the end of the project. Shrink the meeting. Shrink the document. Keep the record.

How to evidence it

Attach the artefacts above to the Select the supplier on stated criteria row with the project name, the owner and the date. The anchor for AC-02 is The selection criteria and the evaluation record. A named person must produce it on request.

For AC-02, the reviewer will sample one live decision and ask for The supplier's evidence of capability. No artefact, no evidence. A file that depends on one person's mailbox is not a file for select the supplier on stated criteria.

What an assessor samples

An assessor reads the select the supplier on stated criteria practice, asks for its evidence and tests one project against it. For AC-02, the useful sample is the most recent project that used the practice, not the best one. A reconstruction written for the visit is a finding for AC-02 if the practice cannot be shown to have happened when it mattered.

Common gaps

A supplier chosen on a personal relationship with no record
Criteria written after the preferred supplier was known

What changes from the 2019 report. For AC-02, acquisition management is named in the public abstract. The transition work is to put the technical content and the acceptance evidence into the purchase, not only the price.

Where the draft fits

The public abstract places select the supplier on stated criteria inside one of the four processes the Intermediate profile covers. For AC-02, the draft clause numbering and wording are not public, so this page cites Public abstract, process list and does not quote the draft. The basis label for AC-02 says whether the practice is stated in the public record, named as a process in the series, or our reading.

Related practices

Source for this page: Public abstract, process list. Open the record and compare it with the AC-02 statement above. Retrieved 2026-10-22.