The Procurement and Finance Department is part of the support functions. It supports senior management and assists business units in managing their projects from an administrative and financial perspective. It is structured around five units, organized into portfolios and pairs to ensure service continuity, and works to safeguard public spending while improving its effectiveness and efficiency. It is designed to meet the needs of public budget and accounting management (GBCP) and address its impacts on the organization of the financial chain, as part of efforts to strengthen internal accounting and budgetary controls. These controls are formalized, managed, and evaluated directly by the department in collaboration with the Quality and Risk Management Unit. It oversees procurement and contracts, agreements and partnerships, as well as missions and travel, and is involved in budget preparation and monitoring of its execution. Effective June 1, 2019, it incorporates the management of general services and real estate. The responsibilities of the five units are detailed below:

• The Procurement/Contracts Unit (UAM): It defines and implements the structuring and professionalization of the agency’s procurement by developing a procurement policy that is regularly updated in accordance with regulations, with a constant focus on efficiency and economic and budgetary performance. It contributes to the implementation of the procurement strategy by supporting the definition of needs, procedural choices, and selection criteria. It recommends and assists with sourcing operations, particularly for complex procurements. It manages public procurement procedures and participates, alongside the prescribers, in monitoring their execution. It ensures the legal validity of the resulting documents. It advises and assists specifiers in the development and implementation of their procurement activities and oversees the drafting and negotiation of contracts both internally and with suppliers.

• The Agreements and Partnerships Unit (UCP) develops and implements the partnerships necessary for the execution of the agency’s strategic plan. It provides methodological support and assistance to the business divisions in the legal, administrative, and financial structuring of the agency’s projects through the drafting of financial and non-financial agreements, as well as the monitoring of framework agreements, in coordination with senior management. It is also responsible for relations with external funders. It participates in the preparation of calls for national and European projects.

• The Logistics and Real Estate Unit (ULI) manages services related to buildings, including construction work and equipment maintenance, on-site hygiene and cleanliness, energy management, and regulatory inspections. It also provides a range of user services, including reception, mail handling, fleet management, meeting room and cafeteria management, as well as minor renovations and relocations. It also monitors a number of performance indicators to optimize management.

• The Missions and Travel Unit (UMD) operates within the framework of professionalizing and optimizing the management of this area of activity, notably through the administrative, technical, and financial management of missions and travel, as well as by participating in the drafting of contracts and partnerships within this field of expertise. It also ensures the smooth execution of these activities. Finally, it provides functional administration of the travel expense system and user training.

• The Financial Planning and Execution Unit (UPEF) is organized into activity clusters and handles all budgetary, administrative, and financial execution issues within the scope of the following missions:

  • Budget planning and management, including the preparation of annual budgets and the allocation of budgetary resources to business units through management dialogues and regular updates on budget execution.

  • Administrative and financial execution. The unit ensures that public contracts, partnership agreements, and purchase orders are properly recorded in the information system (IS). It handles the recording of revenue from agreements. It advises and supports business departments in certifying services rendered and actively collaborates with the accounting office on invoice payments. It participates in the functional administration of the IS and conducts training sessions.

  • Management control, whose primary mission is to ensure the quality of financial data recorded in the IS and, in particular, to ensure the updating and proper use of analytical reference frameworks. The unit also provides reporting and monitoring tools to senior management and all departments.