Performance assessment against the Commonwealth Procurement Rules
The department‘s approach to procuring goods and services, including consultancies, is consistent with, and reflects the principles of, the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. These rules are applied to activities through the department’s accountable authority instructions, supporting operational guidelines and procurement framework.
Information on significant procurements expected to be undertaken in 2018–19 is in the department’s annual procurement plan, available on the AusTender website, tenders.gov.au.
Exempt contracts
No contracts in excess of $10,000 (inclusive of GST) or standing offers were exempted by the Secretary from being published on AusTender on the basis that they would disclose exempt matters under the Freedom of Information Act 1982.
Australian National Audit Office access clauses
No contracts of $100,000 or more (inclusive of GST) were let during 2017–18 that did not provide for the Auditor-General to have access to the contractor’s premises.
Initiatives to support small and medium-sized enterprises and Indigenous business
Results of pay-on-time survey
The Department of Finance recognises the importance of ensuring that small businesses are paid on time. The results of the Government Pay On-Time survey, which are available on the Treasury website, treasury.gov.au, show that Finance paid 95.4 per cent of contracts valued under $1,000,000 within 30 days in 2016–17.
The Department of Finance supports small and medium-sized business participation in the Commonwealth Government procurement market. The small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) participation statistics published on the Department of Finance’s website (finance.gov.au) estimate that in 2016–17, 56 per cent of contracts were awarded to SMEs.
The department’s support for SMEs includes using the Commonwealth Contracting Suite, where appropriate, for procurements valued under $1,000,000.
The department supports the goals of the Indigenous Procurement Policy and achieved its 2017–18 target, as reflected on the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet website, pmc.gov.au.
Consultants
The department engages consultants when it requires specialist expertise or when independent research, review or assessment is required. Decisions to engage consultants during 2017–18 were made in accordance with the PGPA Act and related regulations, including the Commonwealth Procurement Rules and relevant internal policies. Finance uses consultants to manage discrete one-off projects when specialist expertise is required for a limited time.
During 2017–18, 171 new consultancy contracts were entered into involving total actual expenditure of $9.4 million. In addition, 100 ongoing consultancy contracts were active during the period, involving total actual expenditure of $8.9 million (see Table 2).
Table 2: Expenditure on consultancy contracts, 2015–16 to 2017–18
| 2015-2016 $ million |
2016-17 $ million |
2017-18 $ million |
|
| Total actual consulting expenditure | 30.9 | 26.2 | 18.4 |
Annual reports contain information about actual expenditure on contracts for consultants. Information on the value of contracts and consultancies is available on the AusTender website (tenders.gov.au).
