Procurement Management
Finance assists in achieving the government’s governance and accountability objectives in relation to government procurement by providing advice on the development and management of the Commonwealth procurement policy framework. The department develops and manages the whole-of-government procurement notification and reporting, the electronic tendering system, and the coordinated procurement contracting framework. Finance also provides policy, advice, and coordinates whole-of-government communication and advertising, including managing the Australian Government’s master media agency contracts.
Procurement Framework
On 10 October 2008, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation released revised Commonwealth Procurement Guidelines (CPGs) and these took effect from 1 December 2008. The new guidelines clarify existing procurement policy and incorporate changes to improve accountability and transparency. The CPGs now provide for coordinated procurement contracting arrangements.
On 24 October 2008, the Minister for Small Business announced a stronger policy on 30-Day Payments for Small Business that applies to contracts entered into after 1 December 2008. For procurement contracts valued up to $5 million (GST inclusive), agencies must provide for payment within 30 days of receipt of a correctly rendered invoice. In addition, procurement contracts valued up to $1 million (GST inclusive) must provide for interest on late payments.
Coordinated Procurement Contracting
Finance’s 2007-08 Annual Report noted that, on 28 April 2008, the government agreed to establish a coordinated procurement contracting framework. During 2008-09, the department has continued to progress arrangements to deliver efficiencies and savings from a more coordinated approach to procurement.
Finance has undertaken scoping studies in relation to the procurement of travel services, licensing of Microsoft products, telecommunications, major office machines, desktop computers and accounting services. On 9 February 2009, the Minister for Finance and Deregulation announced the establishment of a volume sourcing agreement with Microsoft. On 11 March 2009, the Minister announced that the government would be proceeding with coordinated contracting arrangements for travel services. The government is expected to consider the outcomes of the other scoping studies in the second half of 2009.
Finance has established an internal Travel Arrangements Taskforce to progress the whole-of-government tenders for travel services. Three separate open tenders will be conducted in the second half of 2009 for domestic air travel, international air travel and travel management services. A second phase of open tenders will also be conducted at this time for the provision of accommodation, hire cars and travel cards to the Australian Government.
Government Advertising
On 2 July 2008, the then Special Minister of State and the Minister for Finance and Deregulation released Guidelines on Campaign Advertising by Australian Government Departments and Agencies. The guidelines are one element of a new campaign advertising framework that formally came into effect on 1 September 2008. The framework enhances accountability and transparency in campaign advertising, providing assurance that government information and advertising campaigns are objective, factual, explanatory and free of political messages. The framework also promotes value for money by providing a whole-of-government perspective to the advertising campaigns undertaken by agencies.
Application of the new framework is supported by the Inter-departmental Committee on Communications (IDCC) and the Auditor-General. The IDCC is a committee of officials at the Deputy Secretary level which considers government information and advertising activities to ensure whole-of-government coordination. Finance provides secretariat services for the IDCC. During the 2008-09 financial year, the IDCC reviewed 27 advertising campaigns.
The Auditor-General reviews campaigns with expenditure in excess of $250,000 to provide a report to the relevant Minister on the proposed campaigns’ compliance with the guidelines. However, it is also open to a Minister to ask the Auditor-General to provide a report on campaigns valued at less than $250,000 or that are sensitive in nature.
To support the campaign advertising framework, Finance has established the Communications Multi-Use List (CMUL) that commenced operation on 31 March 2009. The CMUL is a whole-of-government procurement arrangement for advertising campaigns. Agencies undertaking advertising campaigns with expenditures exceeding $250,000 use the CMUL to identify suitable communications experts in the areas of advertising, market research, public relations, communications with Indigenous Australians, and communications with people from non-English speaking backgrounds. Consistent with the government’s commitment to introduce greater accountability and transparency in relation to advertising campaigns, the details of all suppliers listed on the CMUL are publicly available on AusTender.
To promote further transparency and accountability in relation to government advertising campaigns, the government released the Campaign Advertising by Australian Government Departments and Agencies Half Year Report 1 July to 31 December 2008 in March 2009. The report is the first in a series of biannual reports on campaign advertising and covered direct government campaign advertising expenditures by FMA Act agencies for the first half of 2008-09.
In 2008-09, $146.2 million was expended on campaign advertising through the Central Advertising System including $130.1 million for FMA Act agencies and $16.1 million for CAC entities and other bodies. In addition, a total of $55.7 million was expended on non-campaign advertising including recruitment and tender notices. Of this, FMA Act agencies accounted for $38.5 million. The Northern Territory and ACT governments placed non-campaign advertising totalling $6.3 million and $2.9 million respectively.
Table 3 details major advertising campaigns by FMA agencies placed through the Central Advertising System, for campaigns valued over $250,000. This reporting threshold is lower than the $3.5 million threshold used for reporting in 2007-08, reflecting the requirements of the new guidelines.