AGTA Head Agreement
The standard Australian Government Telecommunications Arrangements (AGTA)* head agreement reflects current government legislation, procurement policies and guidelines. It is consistent with the general principles of Australian Government administration and emphasises accountability for achieving results or outcomes.
* Formerly known as “Whole-of-Government Telecommunications Arrangements (WoGTA)”.
The Australian Government expects telecommunications service providers to make a commitment to work towards efficient interoperability between service providers, switch vendors, network managers and equipment providers.
Structure of Agreements
Each agreement with a telecommunications service provider is a standing agreement for provision of the telecommunications services between the Australian Government and the telecommunications service provider.
Each of the AGTA deeds of proposal follows the same structure:
- Head Agreement
- Schedule 1 – Standard Contract Terms
- Schedule 2 – The Official Order
- Schedule 3 – Undertakings and Guarantees
- Schedule 4 – Reporting Requirements
- Schedule 5 – Service Offerings
- Schedule 6 – Confidentiality Undertaking
- Schedule 7 – Head Agreement Confidential Information
Head Agreement
This is the agreement between the Department of Finance and Deregulation (Finance) (representing the Commonwealth) and the service provider. It establishes the structure under which the service provider will offer and supply services to customers. In it, the provider agrees to provide telecommunications services, as listed in Schedule 5, to a customer under the terms and conditions of Schedule 1.
Australian Government Telecommunications Head Agreement PDF version [
264 KB]
Australian Government Telecommunications Head Agreement RTF version [
609 KB]
Schedule 1 – Standard Contract Terms
This schedule sets out the contractual terms and conditions that will apply to a contract between a customer and a service provider. This occurs when the agency places an Official Order for a service and this is agreed between the agency and the service provider.
Schedule 2 – The Official Order
This enables the agency to order the services that are described in Schedule 5 of the service provider’s Head Agreement, and provides the details of the agency’s specific requirements. The acceptance of the Official Order forms a AGTA contract between the customer and the service provider comprising of the Standard Contract Terms in Schedule 1 and the completed Official Order.
Agencies should make sure they complete the Official Order comprehensively. For example, a number of the clauses in the Standard Contract Terms require decisions about risk management issues to be made in the Order. Customers should also ensure that through the Order, they are procuring all the elements of the service they need (as described in Schedule 5) including such details as the service and service levels, which may be included as an attachment.
An agency may include within the Official Order, additional terms and conditions that remain consistent with the Standard Contract Terms in Schedule 1 but may not alter or delete any of those Standard Contract Terms without Finance approval.
To simplify the procurement process, agencies may also include associated telecommunications equipment and bundled IT-related services that would otherwise not come under the AGTA agreement. However, customers should exercise caution when implementing this option.
Schedule 3 – Undertakings and Guarantees
Under each AGTA Agreement, Finance may require the service provider to put in place a financial undertaking or guarantee in favour of all customers, while not preventing the customer from seeking its own Financial Undertaking or Guarantee (as part of the Official Order). This helps the provider cover all customers, rather than having to renegotiate individual undertakings. An example of this may occur when a current service provider offers to provide a new service in which the chosen service provider may not have any previous experience in delivering. Therefore, the risk of implementing the service may necessitate the provider to give an undertaking which will cover the cost of replacing the service, should it fail.
Schedule 4 – Reporting Requirements
This Schedule describes the format of the data to be reported. In addition to whatever ‘normal’ reporting requirements the customer may have, under a AGTA Agreement the service provider is required (under Clause 20 of the Head Agreement) to provide regular reports on expenditure to Finance on supply of services at a whole-of-government level.
Schedule 5 – Service Offerings
Under a AGTA Agreement, the service provider must lodge a schedule setting out the details of services that are offered to customers in Schedule 5. Details that should be covered include:
- a description of each service, including appropriate technical discussion;
- any conditions affecting its acquisition;
- a term for the offer;
- price;
- service levels – where the service level is fundamental to the service, service level guarantees (rather than targets) should be sought; and
- service-specific terms and conditions – terms that are unique to the service (these terms are not to be inconsistent with the Schedule 1 Standard Contract Terms nor should they seek to attempt a re-balancing of risks or additional limitations).
Schedule 6 – Confidentiality Undertaking
For the purposes of meeting the reporting requirements of the Senate Order 192, a brief description of material that is deemed confidential, its nature and period of confidentiality is required to be stated in the Agreement. An example of when this schedule may be invoked is when a customer or Finance is engaging a benchmarking consultant.
Schedule 7 – Head Agreement Confidential Information
This information aids preparation of reports required under the Senate Standing Order on departmental and agency contracts. The general principle (the reverse onus principle) is that information in government contracts should not be protected as confidential unless there is a good reason.
Contact for information on this page: ictprocurement@finance.gov.au