What is your opinion on this statement based on the idea of what audit steps would you perform to evaluate the contract bidding process?

The auditor should evaluate the contract bidding process by determining whether the procedures used in soliciting bids or proposals maximizes competition and results in making the award to the lowest responsible and responsive bidder or the best proposer. The auditor should start with evaluating if the entity has clearly defined the service requirements to ensure that the needs were conveyed clearly to potential contractors. Next the auditor should ensure that there is adequate competition in the bid solicitation process. This includes keeping updated bidder lists and giving the contractor enough time to get their bid together. Another step is having security over bids such as opening them formally and recording them. Also need to keep pending bids in secure location. The last step the auditor should take to evaluate the bidding process is the adequacy and effect of competition. This includes randomly selecting a few contracts and looking at the bidding activity. The bidding activity is if the number of bids are sufficient and if the amounts are in line with the estimate.