After the tender comes the audit

Most media procurement tenders end with the award. What happens to the campaign after that often only gets checked using the numbers the delivering supplier provides itself.

That's not independent oversight, even if it feels like one. Did it actually run where it was agreed to run. Was the money spent the way the proposal described. Both questions can only really be answered if at least some of the data can be checked independently of the delivering party, not just the summary report that comes afterward.

For a public body, that's not a formality, it's part of its own duty to account for public spending. That's why we disclose upfront which figures can be cross-checked independently, and which come only from the delivering supplier itself. That's a distinction worth knowing before the award, not after.

Anyone planning a media procurement tender should build that distinction into it. It takes a bit more care to prepare, but it makes the later audit actually hold up.