A guide for non-corporate Commonwealth entities: Consultancy and Non-Consultancy Contract Expenditure Reporting

The Department is a non-corporate Commonwealth entity. The Department’s 2020-21 reportable contract data was as follows:

Consultancy contracts 

• Advisors & Sons Pty Ltd was engaged in 2020-21 to provide expert advice to the Department. This was reported as a consultancy contract in AusTender.  The Department spent $8.0 million under the contract in 2020-21. 
• Finest Finance Ltd was engaged in 2020-21 to provide financial advice to the Department.  This was reported as a consultancy contract in AusTender.  The Department spent $1.8 million under the contract in 2020-21.  
• IT Specialists Ltd was engaged in 2020-21 to provide strategic information technology advice to the Department. This was reported as a consultancy contract in AusTender.  The Department spent $80,000 under the contract in 2020-21.  
• Finest Finance (Evaluations) Ltd have been engaged since 2018-19 to provide independent advice. This was reported as a consultancy contract in AusTender.  The Department spent $2.5 million under the contract in 2020-21.  
• Consultants R Us Pty Ltd were engaged in 2020-21 to provide consulting services. This was reported as a consultancy contract in AusTender.  The Department spent $0.5 million under the contract in 2020-21. 
• Best Expert Advice Pty Ltd was engaged in 2020-21 to undertake a due diligence review. This was reported as a consultancy contract in AusTender. The Department spent $0.2 million under the contract in 2020-21. 

Non-consultancy contracts 

• Excellent Equipment Ltd was engaged in 2020-21 to provide office equipment. The Department spent $2.3 million under the contract in 2020-21. 
• Skilful Training Pty Ltd was engaged in 2020-21 to develop process documentation.  The Department spent $1.8 million under the contract in 2020-21. 
• Genius Media Ltd was engaged in 2020-21 to provide media services to the Department. Genius Media Ltd is a subsidiary of Genius Communications Ltd.  The Department spent $0.9 million under the contract in 2020-21. 
• Finest Finance Ltd have been engaged since 2019-20 to provide auditing services. Finest Finance is a part of a professional service network of accounting advisory firms across the world. Finest Finance (Evaluations) Ltd is also part of this network. The network members are independent firms that do not practice jointly.  The Department spent $3.0 million each year under the contract. 
• Assistants-On-Call Pty Ltd have been engaged since 2019-20 to provide short-term backfilling of administrative staff, when ongoing employees go on leave.   The Department spent $1.5 million under the contract in 2020-21. 
• Genius Communications Ltd have been engaged since 2019-20 to provide media services for the Department’s ongoing business.  The Department spent $4.0 million under the contract in 2020-21. 
• Skilful Training Pty Ltd have been engaged on an ongoing basis since 2019-20 to provide training each year to the incoming graduates to the Department. The training is provided to the graduates at the Department’s premises.  
• The Department spent $0.2 million under the contract in 2020-21. The Department leases its office space from Property Holdings Pty Ltd. This contract was entered into in 2018-19 for a five year term. The Department spent $0.5 million under the contract in 2020-21. 

The following tables set out the correct way for the Department to report the consultancy and non-consultancy contract data. A data template following this structure will be released for entities to follow when disclosing information in the annual report. 

The first table for both categories of contract outlines the number of and expenditure on such contracts, and provides the total of those columns. 

The second table for both categories of contract provides information on those organisations who received the 5 largest shares of an entity’s expenditure on such contracts, and those organisations who received 5% or more of an entity’s expenditure on such contracts. Reporting this information in the same table avoids duplication as there will be overlap.

The calculations for this data can be found at Appendix A  under Tools and templates.
 

Expenditure on reportable consultancy contracts

Expenditure on reportable non-consultancy contracts

To assist entities in meeting reporting requirements, Finance has collated best practice approaches based on previous reporting. It is important to note that these are not required by the PGPA Rule but will assist in the analysis of the information provided:

When reporting the largest share of the total expenditure for consultancy or non-consultancy contracts, entities may include:

• an additional column indicating what proportion of the overall expenditure that particular share is, and
• an additional row indicating the total expenditure of the largest shares combined and the proportion of the overall expenditure that total is.

For example:

Total reportable consultancy contract expenditure in 2020-21 = $13,080,000

Total reportable non-consultancy conract expenditure in 2020-21 = $14,200,000