BuyRight

The first thing you need to do is to work out whether you are doing a procurement or not. Basically, a procurement is when you use government funds to acquire goods or services. There are a few different financial arrangements that can be used, so:

• check the Commonwealth Procurement Rules (CPRs) 2.7-2.9 to make sure you are not doing something else; such as a grant, loan or engaging staff
• Resource Management Guide RMG 411 Grants, Procurements and Other Financial Arrangements provides more detailed information about all the different types of financial arrangements.

If you are still unsure about whether you are doing a procurement or not, seek advice from your agency’s central procurement area. If you are doing a procurement, you can use this BuyRight.

What are you purchasing and how much do you think it’s going to cost?

• What? Be as clear as you can about what your deliverables are to help you prepare your documents and to compare services and prices.
• Where? (remote area procurements have additional considerations – see below).
• How much? When you estimate the value of the procurement, make sure you include any extensions, options or renewals as this will determine which process you need to follow.

If it is not easy to estimate the value at the beginning, you will need to use the process for over $80K for general goods and services. As you clarify the deliverables and the estimated costs become clearer, you may need to change the BuyRight process stream that you use.

The Government has set up panels to simplify the purchase of some goods and services by Government entities. They are designed to make the purchasing of these goods and services easier for entities and to leverage whole-of-Government volumes to produce savings. Many of these panels are mandatory, e.g. travel, office supplies, advertising, ICT services.

• Check the list to see whether there is an existing arrangement and how to access them. Your entity may also have established processes to access some these panels, so check your intranet or talk to your central procurement area.

If you are using a mandatory whole-of-Government panel, do not use BuyRight.

Procurements in remote areas come with obligations under the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP) around using Indigenous businesses to deliver your goods or services.

• Check if your delivery area is classified as a remote area using the RIPP maps.
• Check for Indigenous suppliers that can meet your requirements at Supply Nation’s Indigenous Business Direct.
• If there is a supplier that can meet your requirements and represents value for money, select the $10k-$80K tab (even if your procurement is estimated at a different value) and follow the process beginning at Step 2: Plan your procurement.

Your central procurement team can help identify any applicable exemptions. If you are looking for an Indigenous Supplier or Australian Disability Enterprise, additional information is available via these links:

• Indigenous Suppliers (see Supply Nation).
• Australian Disability Enterprises (see BuyAbility).

An exemption exists for procurements up to $200k, or up to $500,000 for procurements by or on behalf of the Department of Defence, when purchasing from Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs) (Exemption 17). A SME is defined in the CPRs as “an Australian or New Zealand firm with fewer than 200 full-time equivalent employees”.

If there is a supplier that can meet your requirements, represents value for money and your requirement is not overly complex then you may wish to use the simplified process detailed in the $10k - $80k tab (even if your procurement is estimated at a greater value). If you choose to do this then follow the process beginning at Step C.2: Plan your procurement.