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Procurement and Government Policy

The following information is based on the transcript of a presentation made by Bob Venables from the ACT Department of Treasury.

The powerpoint slides that accompanied Bob's presentation are also available for download: Community Sector Funding Policy (PowerPoint presentation: 191 KB)

Sections include:

Back to Funding: The Standard Funding Agreement

Community Sector Funding Framework

Two items of legislation came into existence in the last couple of years that actively worked towards promoting logical planning in the territory in relation to procurement.

Legislation: A third item, the policy that was introduced by the government early in 2004, addressed the relationship between Procurement and community sector funding policy

Policy: Each of these documents brought about a substantial change in the way that the Territory goes about its purchasing.

Government Procurement Act

The procurement Act was created in 2001. Prior to 2001 the Territory operated on a policy regime. The Procurement Act was implemented to require that any Department procuring, or buying, any goods or services or works greater than $50,000 had to go through and plan how they were going to spend that money.

The procurement Act's main responsibility was to establish procurement policy in the Territory. The main thrust of the policy was the emphasis on planning, which involved risk, looking at the evaluation processes associated with selecting successful bidders and dealing with the issue of probity in tendering. Another element of the Act was that it required that people involved in procurement actually developed competence, experience, and expertise. Prior to 2001 their were no requirements on any individual to have any skills at all in procurement, now it is a requirement that people involved in buying things on a regular basis undertake some study or that they join the Public Service with experience already proven before they get the job.

Procurement Principles

The procurement principles guideline requires that every piece of expenditure satisfies certain tests. The guideline recognises that expenditure won't necessarily satisfy every principle every time to the same degree, but the essence is that that government procurement achieves value for money. It must also be done in an open and effective way, so that if there are people that haven't had an opportunity to supply goods or services or works for the Territory there is a framework that allows them to break into the market.

Probity is another word for uprightness or honesty and in the sense of our buying practices it means that what we say we will do we actually do.

The ACT Government has a commitment to environmental sustainability and local industry development; obviously developing and maintaining a strong industry presence in Canberra is an objective of the Government.

In doing all that we also look to manage and balance the risk aspects of the procurement.

So, these are a set of principles that apply across all activities and are the basis of community service purchasing arrangements.

Community Sector Funding Policy

Key elements of the Community Sector Funding Policy: The third part of the change that came about in government over the last couple of years is the introduction of the Community Services Funding Policy, earlier this year, which successfully changed the emphasis away from the purchaser/provider model.

A major element of the policy is it's whole of government approach. Departments are now required to plan their funding arrangements in a consistent fashion. Additionally the Government has introduced the new Standard Funding Agreement which is now the core of all funding arrangements.

Three year cycles have been introduced. We are after effective service delivery, we want to partner as much as we can with the community sector and ensure that we both get the best possible arrangement for the public that we can.

One of the concepts behind the policy is to be able to cater for new entrants and that is consistent with the principles talked about earlier. We want to be sure that when new funding or projects come up that there is an opportunity for organisations that haven't provided that particular type of service in the past to have an opportunity to enter the marketplace.

Also consistent with the principles is the joint development of training and education - these seminars are part of that process. There is also a focus on quality improvement, and flexibility to respond to emerging needs.

All these elements have been built in to the funding cycle now in place for community sector purchasing. Notice that words like purchasing are still used, but we are moving more towards terms like funding agreements and partnering arrangements.


Back to Funding: The Standard Funding Agreement

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