Performance assessment against the Commonwealth Procurement Rules

The Department’s approach to procuring goods and services, including consultancies, is consistent with 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 2021–22 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 entered into during 2020–21 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

The Department supports small business participation in the Australian Government procurement market. Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and small enterprise participation statistics are available on the Department's website.

The Department's measures to support SMEs include:

• complying with the Commonwealth Procurement Framework
• using standardised contracts for low-risk procurements valued under $200,000
• implementing the Indigenous Procurement Policy, noting that many Indigenous businesses are also SMEs
• using the Australian Industry Participation policies and programs to encourage SME engagement opportunities
• using credit cards for procurements valued below $10,000
• complying with the Government's Supplier Pay On-Time or Pay Interest Policy.

The Department recognises the importance of ensuring that small businesses are paid on time. The Pay On-Time survey performance report for 2020 is available on the Department of Industry website. This report shows that, for invoices under $1,000,000, Finance paid 86.4 per cent within 30 days and 73.3 per cent within 20 days in 2019–20.

The Department supports the goals of the Indigenous Procurement Policy (IPP). This is reflected in the IPP procurement statistics, which show Finance met its 2020–21 IPP target. Further details are available on the National Indigenous Australians Agency website (niaa.gov.au).

Consultancy summary statement

The Department engages consultants when it requires specialist expertise or when independent research, review or assessment is required. Decisions to engage consultants during 2020–21 were made in accordance with the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (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.

As shown in Table 3, during 2020–21, 223 new reportable consultancy contracts were entered into, valued at $20.6 million (see tenders.gov.au) with expenditure against these of $10.2 million (GST inclusive). In addition, 87 reportable consultancy contracts were ongoing from a previous period with actual expenditure of $6.8 million (GST inclusive).

Information on the value of contracts and consultancies is available on the AusTender website.

Table 3: Reportable consultancy contracts, 2020–21

Table 4 shows the top five consultants (by value of expenditure) with Finance during 2020–21.

Table 4: Top five consultants in 2020–21

Non-consultancy contracts

As shown in Table 5, during 2020–21, 723 new reportable non-consultancy contracts were entered into valued at $271.4 million (see tenders.gov.au) with expenditure against these of $47.0 million (GST inclusive). In addition, 435 reportable non-consultancy contracts were ongoing from a previous period with expenditure of $145.0 million (GST inclusive).

Information on the value of reportable non-consultancy contracts is available on the AusTender website.

Table 5: Reportable non-consultancy contracts, 2020–21

Table 6 shows the top five non-consultancy contracts (by value of expenditure) with Finance during 2020–21.

Table 6: Top five non-consultancy contracts (by value of expenditure) in 2020–21